Abstract:
In recent years, Food Delivery Applications (FDAs) have been introduced to Thai society and played an important role in food consumption. Consequently, instead of making restaurant trips and dine-in restaurants, some FDA users have changed their behavior to ordering meals via this service. Nonetheless, the question of how this service affects food consumption trips remains an important research topic. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of food delivery applications towards changes in travel behavior in terms of overall travel distance and to study the determinants of change in FDA ordering frequency under the COVID-19 epidemic prevention measures in the highest and strictly controlled areas (lock-downed area). A total of 405 samples in this research included FDA users who lived in Bangkok. The result indicated that the existence of food delivery applications affects an increase in overall travel distance due to induced demand. In addition, the ordered logistic regression analysis was performed using various explanatory factors including mobility characteristics, Accessibility Efficiency's determinants, Innovation Diffusion's determinants, sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The results showed that individuals, who aged equal to or over 40 years old or whose workplace was located more than 500 meters from the market or supermarket, had a greater probability to use FDA with more frequently. And Whose earnings between 15,001 30,000 baht per month had a less probability to use FDA during the lock-down period compared with the pre-epidemic period.