Factor Influencing the Decision Making of Muslim Tourist on Selecting Hotel in Bangkok

Abstract

          Over the past decades, there has been an increasing number of Muslim tourists as well as increasing of the products and services to accommodate Muslim tourists to be more convenient  during their stay in a destination country. Hence, Halal Tourism has created increasing awareness among the Muslim tourists since 2010. The purposes   provided component and factor for Muslim tourists in accordance with the religious routines. The  research method of collecting the data was a questionnaire and in-depth interview from 410 of foreign Muslim tourists and interviewed 17 hoteliers. Data was    collected by using Exploratory Factor Analysis method (EFA) with Loading Factor and Eigen value ? 0.5. The research findings demonstrated that KMO equals to 0.957, Bartlette's test of Sphericity equals to 27,720 (P Value = 0.000) and degree of freedom (df) = 990. The research  team concluded that the actors related  to Muslim tourists travelling in Thailand had deducted from 7 factors to 5 factors which were 1) hospitality and facilities had factor loading between 0.681-0.852, variance equals to 57.881, 2) Physical evidence and Other Services had factor loading between 0.632-0.748, variance equals to 4.730, 3) Responsibility to Religious and Society had factor loading between 0.586-0.743, variance equals to 6.204, 4) Staff  Service skills and Responsibility had factor loading between 0.536-0.678, variance equals to 3.164, and  5) Service  Safety and Security had factor loading between 0.515-0.637, variance equals to 2.825. The researchers   concluded the importance for the hotel business  aret  have knowledge  and preparation of obtaining the Halal certificate and implementing the Islamic hotel service practice which will enable them to face with opportunities and the challenges to develop the services for foreign Muslim tourists in Thailand in AEC Era.