Abstract
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative impact on many tourist destinations around the world, including Thailand. A shift in typical vacation behavior has emerged as a major issue in the global tourism industry as a result of travel restriction and social distancing issues. In the new normal scenario of COVID-19 pandemic, creative tourism, which focuses on participating in onsite activities and interacting with people, is facing challenges. It is important to pay attention to what tourists consider when making decisions about future travel plans, especially in creative tourism. This chapter focuses on tourist motivation, travel decisions, and travel practices for service providers, all of which are discussed in terms of how Thailand's creative tourism potential can be revitalized. Furthermore, an integrated model of creative tourism is proposed in predicting future travel behavior related to health risk concerns. Several potential implications and concerns for managerial decision-making in service and marketing contexts are discussed.
TopIntroduction
The tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries with leading contribution in term of economic, social, and cultural sectors. According to The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 (World Economic Forum, 2019), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) predicts that global international tourist arrivals will reach 1.8 billion by 2030. By 2030, emerging economy destinations are expected to have the highest growth in international tourist arrivals, accounting for a total of 57% of global international tourist arrivals. With the great deal of benefits on travel and tourism sectors, many countries have developed and promoted destinations to expand their market share. Moreover, the Asia Pacific region is expected to enjoy higher-than-global arrivals growth at 4.9% through 2030 (Ministry of Tourism and Sports Thailand, 2017).
Simultaneously, several critical global issues and challenges (such as sustainability, technological and innovation advancement, human connection, health and safety protocols, experience travel with mental wellness, protecting workforce and communities, social responsibility, and woman empowerment) have been widely discussed in order to implement strategies for shifting industry toward a more sustainable future (WTTC, 2021). Nevertheless, tourism is one of many industries affected by disasters, whether natural or pandemic/epidemic, which has a significant impact on tourist intentions to visit a destination (Pahrudin et al., 2021).
In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, many restrictions and regulations on human mobility affect into travel decision in term of health and safety issue. According to the Global Summit Report (WTTC, 2021), it is important time for turning the crisis to the opportunity to notions of recovery, reshape, rethink, reboot and rebuilding the travelers confidence. As a result, future travel intention and behavior must be considered strongly and seriously as a shift change of a new normal practice. Several researchers investigated factors underlying travel risk perception and travel intention during and after a pandemic to predict tourist behavior (Chien et al., 2017; Godovykh et al., 2020; Li et al., 2021; Samdin et al., 2021; Tseng et al., 2021).
Additionally, the influence of other travel decision determinants on travel intention are significant into tourism researches such as social media (Li et al., 2021; Yu et al., 2021), and destination trust (Shin et al., 2022). Sine tourist behavior is a major issue in the tourism industry, a new scenario in the tourism industry must be revised and proposed based on the new normal environment. For more than a decade, the concept of creative tourism has been debated and proposed as a unique experience for such destinations. In principle, creative tourism is defined as a niche kind of cultural tourism with a unique, authentic, and meaningful tourist experience.
Creative tourism has been recognized as a new category of experience tourism that offer tourists to develop their creative potential as active tourist in learning and experience in such destination (Ali et al., 2016a; Zhang & Xie, 2019). Tourists have transformed into active seekers of new and engaging experiences (Zatori et al., 2018). Stakeholders (such as tourists, locals, trainers, entrepreneurs, and so on) must interact with one another in various forms of learning in order to achieve the core value of creative tourism experience. Creative attractions are not like commodities that are bought routinely (Dean & Suhartanto, 2019).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Service Providers: This means to all local and business entrepreneurs, and other work sectors related to tourists who provide services and products to satisfy tourists’ needs at destinations.
Travel Motivation: This study looks into reasons or purposes which encourage tourists to travel and why tourists travel and involve in creative tourism experience.
Tourist Behavior Intention: This study is to examine how people's decision intentions to travel or not travel as a result of the pandemic situation have changed. This includes the future behavior to participate or avoid in the tourist activities based on health and safety concerns.
Health Risk Perception: Risk perception on health is one of the factors that influence an individual's decision to travel or participate in activities, as evidenced by various forms of communication. When tourists encounter a risky related health crisis, they may experience some negative consequences such as mental effects (such as fear, worry, and unsafety), uncertainty for travel plans with restrictions, and additional expenditures.
Travel Practices: This can be claimed as important guidelines for destination managers, marketers, and service providers including local entrepreneurs to aware and prepare well for providing future tourists.
Pandemic Situation/Environment: This study focuses on the COVID-19 outbreak, which refers to human disease conditions that have significantly affected into the global recession in the hospitality and tourism industry and have resulted in significant changes in travel behavior.
Creative Tourism: This is a type of niche tourism that transforms mass cultural tourism by enhancing the value of creativity and cultural capitals through participation, interaction, and learning.