Effects of Korean television dramas on the flow of Thai tourists in Korea

Abstract

There is an increasing number of Thai tourists travelling to South Korea, the Statistics by Korean Tourism Organization shows the number of Thai tourists was in higher rate that estimated to be 44,706 on 2016 which compared to the year 2015. Television is one of the most visual media that everyone pay attention to. An important percentage of people are rather to watch television upon returning home from daily routine. The speedily developed multi-choice not only as a provider of worldwide news, but has become an important part of our leisure life. Therefore, the present study is a modest attempt to highlight the power of Korean Television Drama with attitude influences the flow of Thai tourist in South Korea. This study explored the travel motivations of Thai tourists by adopting push and pull (internal and external) motivations theory as a conceptual framework, and to examine tourists’ satisfaction (travel motivation) and travel behaviors of Thai tourists were the objectives of this study. The main objective of this study is to investigate travel motivation of Thai tourists from the power of Korean television drama. The current study has revealed travel behaviors of Thai tourists and showed interesting results about Thai travel market. Regarding to tourist behavior, Thai tourists liked to travel aboard once a year. Most of respondents traveled to Korea with family and friends while only some traveled independently. They mainly stayed more than 3-4 nights in Korea. Most respondents came to Korea with their friends, family and relatives. Sightseeing and taking a rest were push factors that influenced Thai tourists to travel to Korea. While, the beauty of natural resources, variety of tourism attractions and activities were pull factors. With regards to research hypotheses, the study revealed that the travel motives of Thai tourists were related to destination of Korea. The results indicated that there were significant differences in respondents’ opinions towards their motives to visit Korea. It was also disclosed that Thai tourists with different demographic characteristics may have different opinions in any factors (push and pull factors). Moreover, the findings indicated that the media (mainly television) influences the tourists to visit Korea.