The influence of media exposure to Thai drama in Sina Weibo on the precaution and intention to travel to Thailand among Chinese tourists

Abstract

This survey research aimed to examine the relationship between storytelling techniques in the Thai drama “Love Destiny” and Chinese audience’ perception toward Thailand, and the influence of the perception of Chinese audience toward Thailand on their intention to travel to Thailand after viewing the drama. Two hundred respondents were selected using purposive sampling method. The sample were Chinese Weibo users who have seen the Thai drama “Love Destiny”. The data was tabulated using Multiple Regression to test the hypotheses with significance of 0.50. The findings found that (1) The exposure to storytelling techniques in the Thai drama “Love Destiny” is positively correlated with Chinese audiences’ perception toward Thailand. Thereinto, the high correlation is visuals, other constructs is all medium correlation; (2) The Chinese audiences’ perception toward Thailand significantly influence their intention to travel to Thailand after viewing the drama. The perception of price and historical and cultural sites are positive. The perception of safe, Thai people are friendly, festivals and food are negative.