Tourism Development Guidelines for Disabled People in Thailand: An Analysis and Synthesis of Research Knowledge

Abstract

          Disabled tourism is a form of tourism that is highly regarded by the World Tourism Organization. But research directly related to tourism for people with disabilities is still limited, resulting in a lack of knowledge to be used in tourism development to support people with disabilities Therefore, this research article aims to 1) explore research on tourism for the disabled in Thailand in the past 10 years, and 2) analyze and synthesize knowledge from research on tourism for the disabled in Thailand in the past 10 years. This research is a documentary research by collecting data from academic databases for analyzing content. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data.

           According to the findings, there are limited research studies on tourism for people with disabilities in Thailand, most of which are qualitative studies on people with mobility disabilities in Bangkok and its vicinity. For research synthesis, all studies can be divided into 4 main issues, namely 1) problems and obstacles in traveling for disabled people, 2) tourism management to accommodate tourists with disabilities, 3) tourism behavior and motivation for disabled tourists, and 4) others issues such as marketing and using online media. Relevant agencies and entrepreneurs can apply this knowledge as a guideline for tourism development to support disabled tourists in the future.