A study of Thai tourism to japan: comparing the preferred travel mode of gen Y and baby boomers.

Abstract

In the past, Thai Baby Boomers tend to travel to Japan by Group Package. On the other hand, but now Thai Gen Y preferred to travel to Japan by FIT method. After July 2013 Japanese Government allowed Thai people travel to Japan without using Japanese Visa which create sense of traveling by FIT among Thai people. The purpose of this study is to find which dimension(s) that affect towards the increasing in trend of FIT tourists to Japan compared between people in Gen Y and Baby Boomers. In-depth interview is conducted to gather qualitative information by interviewing 19 interviewees. The results show that technological change is the most influence factor for FIT traveler in Thailand. For Baby Boomers, they understand the change, but they still prefer group package because the risk from traveling which is the most concern. By the way, Gen Y can adapt with the change and think that new experience is the most important. For managers point of view travel agents need to adapt with the trend to survive in the market.

KEY WORDS: Baby Boomers Generation/ Generation Y/ Technology Improved/ Factors Influencing Method of Traveling