Research On Thai Residents' Perception Of China's Tourism Image And Willingness To Travel To China

The "One Belt And One Road" initiative is a major measure taken by the Chinese government to promote international economic development and cooperation.Tourism can play a positive and important role in promoting "trade connectivity" and "people-to-people connectivity" among the countries along the"One Belt And One Road".As an important country along the "One Belt And One Road",Thailand is also a founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)and has a very important regional influence in south-east Asia.At the same time,Thailand is also the top destination country for Chinese citizens to travel abroad.In 2017,nearly 10 million Chinese citizens visited Thailand.Although China has a vast territory,a long history,and rich tourism attractions and is not far from Thailand,it is not the first choice of destination country for Thai citizens to travel abroad.Only hundreds of thousands of tourists from Thailand have entered China.How to encourage more Thais to travel to China and how to better enhance the "trade connectivity" and"people-to-people connectivity" between China and Thailand through tourism is a research question that deserves in-depth study.Based on Thai residents as the research object,with social representation theory,theory and theory of destination image analysis perspective,using questionnaire and depth interview method to collect firsthand data is analyzed,through the analysis of mathematical statistics and content analysis,in-depth study the Thai residents of mainland China's tourism image perception and their willingness to tour China,then discusses the promote Thai residents in China tourism marketing countermeasures and Suggestions.The findings are as follows:(1)Thai residents' perception of the natural,economic and social environment in mainland China is better than that of people;(2)Thai residents' perception of Chinese mainland's cognitive image is better than that of emotional image;(3)the overall image perception score of Thai residents on the Chinese mainland is not high;(4)in terms of willingness to travel to China,most Thai residents are willing to travel to China and recommend others to travel to China,despite some negative perceptions of the tourism image of mainland China.Based on the analysis of Thai residents' perception of the tourism image of the Chinese mainland and their willingness to travel to China,this paper puts forward some countermeasures and Suggestions to promote the tourism of Thai residents to the Chinese mainland.Including:(1)improve the environmental health of tourist attractions;(2)to advocate civilized travel and improve the international image of Chinese tourists;(3)regulate the tourism market and create a safe tourism environment;(4)strengthen tourism marketing in Thailand,display China's rich tourism resources and spread positive tourism image;(5)more favorable visa policies will be introduced to make it easier for Thai citizens to visit China.