An Analysis of Research Works for the Development of Floating Markets for Promoting Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

     At present, there are many studies examining floating markets in Thailand. However, most of them examine the floating markets based on one single topic. There is still a lack of integrated study to investigate the floating marketing in overall picture in order to bring the body of knowledge to develop the floating markets for tourism purpose. This research article, therefore, has the objectives to 1) explore past studies in regard to the floating markets in Thailand and 2) to analyze and synthesize the knowledge from past studies in order to obtain the important issues for the benefit of floating markets development for the tourism purpose. This research collects the data from online database and employs content and descriptive analyses (frequency and percentage) to analyze the data.

          According to the findings, the studies related to the management and community participation of floating markets have the highest number of studies, followed by image and marketing issues, and tourists’ psychological factors, respectively. For research synthesis, all studies can be grouped into seven issues: 1) management of floating markets 2) community participation 3) services and facilities 4) marketing and publication relation 5) social and cultural development 6) physical and environment development, and 7) tourist satisfaction. The floating market administrators and local organizations may apply the knowledge from this study to enhance the development of floating markets for tourism purpose.