Perception of Thai Tourists towards

Environmental Negative Impacts

Case Study : Amphawa Floating Market Area in Samut Songkram Province

Introduction

Statement of problemThe accessibility of tourism into the area causes

the negative impacts on social and environment in the area so much as follows: the congestion of tourists within the living area of local people, the congestion of motorboat, the pollutions include the air, water, sound and smell, the natural area impacts and the littering impacts. Moreover, there was some issue about the decrease of numbers of Lamphu trees and fireflies on the news since 2005. Therefore, this area is very interesting for launching our survey.

We would like to launch our survey because we would like to study about “Perception of Thai Tourists towards Environmental Negative Impacts in Amphawa Floating Market area”. Our research will focus on studying of degree of environmental impacts in the perception of tourists.

Research Objectives To study about Perception of Thai Tourists towards

Environmental Negative Impacts in Pollution in Amphawa Floating Market.

To study about Perception of Thai Tourists towards Environmental Negative Impacts in Visual impacts in Amphawa Floating Market.

To study about Perception of Thai Tourists towards Environmental Negative Impacts in Environmental congestions in Amphawa Floating Market.

To study about Perception of Thai Tourists towards Environmental Negative Impacts in Natural areas surrounding the floating market in Amphawa Floating Market.

To analyze about the environmental impacts from tourism in Amphawa Floating Market Area.

To find the ways to improve and develop the environment of Amphawa floating market area.

Scope of Research Population : Thai touristsSample : 100 touristsArea:

Definition of TermsEnvironment according to

www.thefreedictionary.com means the circumstances or conditions that surround one. The combinations of external conditions affect and influence the growth, development, and survival of organisms. Therefore, a scope of our research will cover everything surrounding tourists in the following aspects: pollutions, visual impacts, congestions and natural areas surrounding the floating market.

Benefits from ResearchThe benefit of our research is our hope

that this research will be a useful resource for other researchers who are looking forward to study about the negative environmental impacts in Amphawa Floating Market area and for some organizations or governmental organizations who are looking forward to improve the environment within the area.

Research Methodology

Variables Internal & External Factors(Demographic) (Environmental negative

impacts)

* Gender * Pollution* Age * Visual Impacts

* Education * Environmental congestion

* Occupation * Natural areas surrounding

* Current resident the floating market

* Fluency of visiting

Influence

Perception of tourists

Research ToolQuestionnaire : 100 for Thai tourists5 Likert scale about perception as following

scales:5 = Very high

4= Rather high

3= Medium

2= Rather low

1= Very low

Collecting Data We went to do a survey at Amphawa

Floating Market on Sep 17, 2011. We started to survey from 1.00 – 4.00 p.m. then we collected 100 questionnaires.

So Happy

to

be there

Results

Part 1General information (Demographic)

Table 1 Demographic of Thai Tourists

Demographic Number Result

GenderMale 44 44%

Female 56 56%

Age

Less than 20 19 19%

20-30 years 44 44%

31-40 years 26 26%

41-50 years 6 6%

51 or above 5 5%

Education

Lower than Bachelor Degree

27 27%

Bachelor Degree

56 56%

Master Degree

16 16%

Doctoral Degree

1 1%

Continue Table 1

Demographic Number Result

Occupation

Student 34 34%

Government Officer

12 12%

Employee in private company

36 36%

Business owner

5 5%

Other 9 9%

Resident

Samut Songkham province

8 8%

Samut Sakorn province

1 1%

Rachaburi province

4 4%

Phetburi province

1 1%

Bangkok 58 58%

Other 28 28%

Part 1General information (Demographic)

Continue Table 1

Demographic Number Result

Fluency of visiting

First time 32 32%

Once a week

8 8%

2-3 times a week

7 7%

Once a month

15 15%

Other 38 38%From Table 1 above Most Thai tourists were female, aging

between 20-30 years old, holding bachelor degree, working as private employee, residing in Bangkok and visiting depends on various occasions.

Part 1General information (Demographic)

Part 2 the environmental negative impacts

Table 2 Finding of negative impacts in term of pollution

Negative Impact

Degree of severity5 4 3 2 1

Pollution1. Water

Number of Garbage 7%

14%

33%

37%

9%

Oil in the canal 3%

16%

40%

35%

6%

2. Air Smoke from motorboats

5%

25%

42%

24%

4%

Emission from toxic gas into the air

8%

27%

35%

28%

2%

3. Sound

Motorboat sound 17%

31%

40%

16%

5%

4. Smell

Smell of water in the canal

4%

7%

30%

40%

18%

Part 2 the environmental negative impacts

Table 3 Finding of negative impacts in term of visual impacts

Negative Impact

Degree of severity5 4 3 2 1

Visual Impacts1.Degradation of the buildings

2% 17% 40% 32% 9%

2.Dirtiness of shops 3% 15% 38% 36% 8%

3.Dirtiness of the restaurants

21% 40% 33% 6%

4.Dirtiness of the toilets 3% 22% 43% 26% 6%

5. Amount of garbage on the sidewalk / pavement

4% 17% 32% 27% 10%

6. Garbage dump / trash is disorderly

5% 20% 33% 33% 9%

7. Building is incompatible with area

4% 19% 34% 35% 8%

Part 2 the environmental negative impacts Table 4 Finding of negative impacts in term of

environmental congestion

Negative Impact

Degree of severity5 4 3 2 1

Environmental Congestion1. Congestion of boats in the canal

8% 27% 42% 17% 6%

2. Congestion of number of tourists

22% 36% 31% 9% 2%

3. Congestion of shops and sellers

16% 34% 38% 11% 1%

4.Congestion of restaurants

16% 29% 39% 15% 1%

5. Congestion of traffic 23% 35% 32% 9% 1%

Part 2 the environmental negative impacts

Table 5 Finding of negative impacts in term of Natural areas surrounding the floating market

Negative Impact

Degree of severity5 4 3 2 1

Natural areas surrounding the floating market1.Erosion of soil along the canal

7% 31% 39% 21% 2%

2.Reduction of the forest area around the floating market

15% 34% 35% 14% 2%

3.Reduction of Lamphu trees or Sonneratia caseolaris

15% 40% 26% 13% 6%

4.Reduction of fireflies 22% 39% 21% 14% 4%

Tourist’s recommendations

QuestionsDo you think which environmental negative

impact should be solved the most? Do you have any suggestions or plans to

deal with that negative impact and which organization should take part of this plan the most?

Description: We have to work together in order to make a canal become a cleaner one.

Description: There is too much garbage which destroys a good scenery and environment of the area.

Description: The government organizations should take part in the area in order to educate and build the awareness for local community then the local community can work together to manage the area.

Description: The congestion and toilet problems should be solved.

Description: According to, the increase of tourists which generates income to the area a lot so, this income should be used for revival and conservation the area more than using for build new infrastructure.

Description: The congestion within the area should be managed more than its current management.

Description: The congestion of restaurants should be solved.

Description: The utensils should be something that can reuse because the most of the current utensils are made from plastic which leads more garbage within the area.

Description: The natural areas surrounding the floating market should be solved and revived the most in order to sustain the natural resources. Everyone who involved of the management and conservation within the area should launch the project immediately.

Description: Lumphu trees and fireflies problems should be taken care more than its current this.

Funny recommendation : Decrease corruption

Conclusion and

Recommendation

Summary of Research Results

Most of the finding of the severity’s degree about Perception of Thai Tourists towards Environmental Negative Impacts in Amphawa Floating Market areas is medium.

However, from the findings we can split out some items that should be improved in order to revive and conserve the environment within and surrounding Amphawa Floating Market. There are congestions of numbers of tourists within the floating market, congestion of traffic, reduction of Lumphu trees and reduction of fireflies because most of tourist received severity’s degree of these environmental negative impacts is rather high.

DiscussionAccording to, we all have been to Amphawa

Floating Market so; we received and experienced environment of the area. We think that there are many environmental negative impacts that should be improved immediately which are dirtiness of toilets, too many garbage problem , congestion of numbers of tourists and plastic utensil problems because we all received these problems in very high level of severity. From our survey, perception of tourists relates to their past experiences about the destination (in this case is Amphawa Floating Market). In this research, we can indicate about the past experience tourists by using the fluency of visiting from our questionnaire. This relates to the perception theory of Psychologist Richard Gregory.

Discussion Richard Gregory argued that “ In order to

receive information from the environment we are equipped with sense organs e.g. eye, ear, nose. 

For Gregory, perception involves making inferences about what we see and trying to make a best guess.  Prior knowledge and past experience are crucial in perception. 

Conclusion and Recommendation

According to we found that most of the severity’s degree of the tourists was medium so, we would like to recommend for some private organization or governmental organization who involves in managing the areas should spend more effort in order to take care of the areas and improve and conserve the natural and physical environment.

Finally, it’s our hope that this study will be very useful resource for another researcher who would like to study or survey about the environmental negative impacts within the area. Moreover, this research will give the ideas for some organizations who would like to improve or develop this floating market because they will know how can they plan a management plan.

Referencehttp://www.nistep.go.jp/achiev/ftx/eng/mat077e/html/

mat077be.html