The Expenditure on Wellness Tourism of Tourists Travelling in Betong District, Yala Province

Abstract

Currently, wellness tourism gains popularity among tourists. Moreover, Betong district in Yala province is an area that has the potential to be wellness destination. Therefore, the objective of this research is to estimate the expected expenditure on wellness services of tourists traveling to Betong District by applying multiple linear regression model. The result showed that the wellness services which have more proportions in tourists’ expenditure are 1) trekking, biking and sightseeing 2) visiting Betong hot spring 3) visiting archaeological sites and community-based tourism and 4) traditional massage service, respectively. The average expected expenditure on overall wellness services are 2,587.8 baht per person per trip. In addition, the average expected expenditure of Malaysian tourists is 2,745.5 baht per person per trip, much more than the expected expenditure of Thai tourists which is 2,114.7 baht per person per trip. The multivariate regression model found that the significant factors that effects the expected expenditures include nationality, age, religion, education level, occupation, monthly Income, information about tourism destination, how to travel, accommodation, cost for overall trip, experience on wellness tourism and utilizing wellness tourism services in Betong. Since the expected expenditure of Malaysian tourist is higher than the expected expenditure of Thais. Consequently, the wellness tourism service should be focus on the demand of Malaysian tourists as the first priority.