Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to investigate the foreign tourist demands in Koh Samui, factors affecting the foreign tourist demands, and the correlations between the foreigners tourist demands and their personal factors. The questionnaire used as the instrument was conducted to the sample population drawn by means of accidental random sampling method, consisting of 400 foreign tourists vacationing in Koh Samui. SPSS for WINDOWS was used to analyze frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, One-Way ANOVA, and Chi-Square.
The research result revealed that most of the respondents were single male with the age ranging from 25 to 34. They held bachelors degree, and they owned their business. Their domicile was in Europe, and their staying duration in Koh Samui ranged from 7 to 9 days. Their annual incomes ranged from US$ 40,000 to 60,000. They came to Koh Samui with their friends, and it was their first time in Koh Samui with the intention to relax. They acquired the information from the internet and flew to Koh Samui. The results on the factors that specified the demand of the foreign tourists were as follows: the tourist season was the most important, then the service quality, the social, the economic, and the price respectively. The demand factor of annual income was shown to be the most important. The results from the correlation between the tourist demands and personal factors revealed that all personal factors, except sex, were found to be correlated with all tourist demands.