ทัศนคติและพฤติกรรมของนักท่องเที่ยวต่อการบริโภคอาหารริมทาง ย่านตลาดโต้รุ่งในเขตคูเมืองเก่า จังหวัดเชียงใหม่

Abstract

Street food is considered a significant part of food tourism in Thailand, which is very popular among Thai and foreign tourists. In the cities that keep expanding and turning more urban, as a result, lifestyle and eating patterns of the people has changed, and consequently street food becomes a good option for the fast-paced lifestyle because it is convenient and easy to access for new generations and also for tourists who are fascinated by new experiences on their travels. The aim of this research was to examine tourists’ attitudes and behaviors towards street food consumption at night markets in the old city area, Chiang Mai Province. The instrument used in this research was a questionnaire completed by 400 sample tourists. The collected data was analyzed with Frequency, Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation (SD) and the hypothesis was tested with T-test Statistic. According to the data analysis, demographic factors; gender, age, marital status, level of education, profession, average income per month affected the food consumption behaviors of both Thai and foreign tourists. As it is shown in the results, the tourists chose to have street food was most based on its reasonable price, proper quality and variety of food.

On the tourists' satisfaction aspect, enough seats at street food markets to suit with the number of customers was a point the respondents saw should be improved, as suggested in the questionnaire. Therefore, street food vendors, entrepreneurs along with the government sector must work together on improving and developing the night markets in the old city to meet with tourists’ behaviors and attitudes towards street food experience and this will be the key to enhance the quality of street food in Chiang Mai, to generate better economic benefits and to promote tourism of the province.