Executive Summary: Thai People's Travel Decisions and Visa Changes

This dissertation examines the effects of changes in Japan's visa waiver policy on the decision-making processes, perceptions, and motivations of Thai people regarding international travel. The study addresses several objectives, including analyzing the factors influencing Thai travel decisions, determining the relationship between motivation and behavior, and assessing the impacts of visa policy changes. The research employs a quantitative approach, collecting data from 100 Thai respondents through questionnaires and utilizing SPSS for data analysis. The study explores the evolution of visa requirements, their impact on travel behavior, and the implications for tourism. The dissertation includes an introduction providing background on international tourism and visa policies, a literature review covering decision-making factors, motivation, and visa requirements. The research methodology details the research strategy, approach, design, data collection, sampling, and analysis methods. The data analysis section presents the findings, followed by conclusions and recommendations. The study highlights the importance of understanding how visa policies influence international travel decisions, providing insights for policymakers and the tourism industry.

DISSERTATION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The key aim of the dissertation is to examine the change in decision making, perception
and motivation of the Thai people due to change in the visa waiver to Japan. In order to obtain
this aim several objectives have been made. Based on objectives, different themes have been
framed by researcher which help him or her to complete literature review. On the basis of
research objective, systematic questionnaire have been framed and data have been collected from
100 Thai people in order to solve the problem. In order to address the objective of dissertation,
scholar has used various research methodology methods through which appropriate outcome can
easily obtain. Other than that researcher have selected quantitative data have been selected and
SPSS data nalaysis tool have been applied in order to find effective and appropriate result.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of the study.........................................................................................................1
................................................................................................................................................2
Researcher Aim......................................................................................................................4
Research Objective.................................................................................................................4
Research Question..................................................................................................................5
Rationale of the study.............................................................................................................5
Focus and purpose..................................................................................................................6
Research Problem and Hypothesis.........................................................................................6
Dissertation structure..............................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................8
Different factors that influence the decision making of the Thai people when they are
travelling.................................................................................................................................8
Inter-relationship between the behaviour and motivation of the people related to the decision
making..................................................................................................................................11
Changes in Visa requirement policy of the Japan when Thai people visits to Japan...........16
Impact of Visa requirement policy on decision making and behaviour of Thai people when
they are travelling to abroad.................................................................................................19
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................21
Introduction..........................................................................................................................21
Research Strategy.................................................................................................................22
Research Approach...............................................................................................................22
Research philosophy.............................................................................................................23
Research Design...................................................................................................................24
Data collection .....................................................................................................................25
Sampling...............................................................................................................................26
Data analysis.........................................................................................................................27
Ethical consideration............................................................................................................28
Research Limitation..............................................................................................................29

Validity and reliability..........................................................................................................30
DATA ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................30
Discussion ............................................................................................................................31
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................41
Conclusion............................................................................................................................41
Recommendation..................................................................................................................43
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................46
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................51

INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Travel and travelling is the activities for the people who is passionate about travelling
different places so that can explore their knowledge about different culture, traditional, norms,
ethics of different countries. These activities create job opportunities for the people or citizen of
the country with that is serve huge economic growth to the nation. It also plays significant role in
the sustaining the regional economics. (Bangwayo-Skeete and Skeete, 2017) Most of the people
like to travel because of two reason that are they need to experience the beautiful landscape or
attractions or want to learn and explore their knowledge about different culture. Nowadays it has
become a business for the people in order to attract, accommodate and entertain the tourist.
Tourism can be done in two ways that it can be international or national. When people visit to
different countries for the purpose of tourism that is international and when people visits
different state and region of same country that is national tourism. Mentality of the people for
tourism have been limited to the holiday activities only but it is not like that people like to travel
for the different purpose that is for the leisure, business, education and many other purpose.
Tourism can be both incoming and outgoing, when the citizen of the country visit other country
than it is outgoing and when the people form other country visits then it is incoming. Both
outgoing and incoming plays significant role in the balance of payment in the country (Cartlidge,
2016). In today's world, tourism have become the major source of employment and generating
income for the country which affect both the countries that is source and host.
When the economy of the world was in recession in the 2000's which was between the
year 2008 and at the end of 2009, tourism have become the significant factor which have uplift
the economy of different countries (Chang and Hsu, 2017). As tourism have become the
significant for all the countries in the world because it generates income and employment for the
citizen of the country. Importance of tourism have been recognised in Manila Declaration on
World Tourism of 1980 which state that tourism have direct impact on the social, educational,
cultural and economic sectors of the national society and international religions. The income can
be generated from travel and tourism in many ways such as income from selling goods and
services to the tourist, accommodation, travelling etc. it has been estimated that 30% of the
world trade have been done with the help of tourism and 6% of overall export of goods and
services is made to the tourist people (Czaika and Neumayer, 2017). This have created
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opportunities for the service sector industries and serve employment to the people (Gotoand
Akai, 2017). The different services for the tourist people served by the service industry are
transportation services such as airlines, taxi cabs, cruise ships, hospitality services such as
accommodation in hotels, resorts, entertainment venues such as casino, shopping malls.
Amusement parks, theatres music venues etc.
When it comes to the Thai people, there is increase in the numbers of people who have
been travelling to the abroad every year. This statement has been given by the World bank
group. Thai people have all the right and authorities to travel different countries without
requirement of Visa. The countries where they are authorised to travel without visa are Japan,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Argentina (Koslowski, 2016).
Illustration 1: Growth in international tourism
(Source: International tourism, number of departures, 2017)
This graph shows that there is rapid growth in the international tourism, from 1995 to
2014, departure of the people from their home country to the other countries have been
increasing year by year. This state that people have started travel to different countries in order
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to excel knowledge of different culture, traditions, attraction etc. Travel visa is the conditional
authorisation which is given by the host country to the foreigner or international tourist which
state that they are allowed to enter into the country, remain and leave the country (Laube and
Heidler, 2016). It also includes the duration to stay a person in the country, which limits the
person to be in the country till the duration which is written in the visa. It is being associated
with the request made by the person to the host country in order to allow him or her to enter and
stay in the country till the maturity time of the visa. It is the form of the sticker which is
endorsed to the applicant of traveller passport or the travel document. In the pastime, visa by
granted to the person when he or she visited to the country and it was granted by the immigration
official. Whereas in today's time, visa should be applied in advance which can be done by the
consular office, internet and mail (Liu and McKercher, 2016). Some countries have exit visa in
order to leave the country and some countries all the citizen of different counties to visit without
visa. It is generally given to the non-citizen of the country and it is based on the some or specific
constraints such as time frame to enter into country, time frame to stay in the country and
prohibition for the employment. Visa do not mean that it mandatory that person can stay for the
time period written in the visa, it can be revoked any time when the visitor do not follow all the
rules and regulation of the country or does any miss-conduct. While applying visa in advance,
the host country can able to consider the different circumstances of the visitor which helps them
to serve permission to traveller (Adhariani and Clift, 2017). The different factors may includes
financial security, details for previous visit, reason for travelling etc. the traveller need to give
some medical check-ups and security test and he or she need to pass that test in order to get visa
(Wasiński, 2016).
Visa plays very significant role in the international tourism, people can visit different
countries when they get visa that is approval from host country to enter their country. Without
visa, no person can visit to the other country. Hence, it plays key role in the international travel
and tourism industries (Bangwayo-Skeete and Skeete, 2017). Some of the countries keeps large
restriction on issuing the visa, whereas some countries allow their member country's citizen to
enter their country without any visa. If there is large restriction on visa then people need to put
huge efforts to get it and this is changing the perception of people. Whereas when some
countries keep low restriction on visa, that country have huge international tourism because
people find easy to enter into the other countries (Antón and Laguna-García, 2017)
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When it comes to the Thai people, they are very much interested in travelling different
countries in order to excel knowledge of different culture, people, traditions, attractions etc. Year
by year number of people have been increasing who have positive tourism perception and like to
travel different countries. In order to increase this service sector, Thai government have made
contract with the different counties in order to permit Thai people in different counties without
any visa (Cartlidge, 2016). This contract have reduced the barriers between Thailand and other
countries and due to this perception of people have changed and they have been motivated to
travel different countries. This enhance good relationship between different countries with
Thailand. Previously Thai people were allowed to visit Japan without visa, they need not to
apply visa or take permission from Japan to visit there, but it has been changed, when citizen of
the Thailand visit Japan for more than 60 days, they need to apply for visa and if any person is
travelling for business purpose, he or she does not require visa. There have been 60 countries
whose citizen are being allowed to Japan without visa that are Andorra, Australia, Argentina,
Bahamas, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey etc. Whereas
Thai people are allowed to travel in 78 countries without any visa which also includes Japan but
it is only for 15 days (Bangwayo-Skeete and Skeete, 2017). Due to change in the policy of Japan
visa, there is change in the perception, mindset, motivation, decision making of people of
Thailand (Chang and Hsu, 2017).
Researcher Aim
The aim of the study is to “To examine the change in decision making, perception and
motivation of the Thai people due to change in the visa waiver to Japan”
Research Objective
 To examine the different factors that influence the decision making of the Thai people
when they are travelling to Japan
 To determine the relationship between the motivation and behaviour of people related to
the decision making process.
 To examine the change in Visa requirement policy of the Japan when Thai people visits
to Japan.
 To analyse the impact of Visa requirement policy on decision making and behaviour of
Thai people when they are travelling to abroad.
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Research Question
 What are the different factors that influence the decision making of the Thai people when
they are travelling to Japan?
 What is the inter-relationship between the behaviour and motivation of the people related
to the decision making?
 What change have been occurred in Visa requirement policy of the Japan when Thai
people visits to Japan?
 What is the impact of Visa requirement policy on decision making and behaviour of Thai
people when they are travelling to abroad?
Rationale of the study
There are many reasons that have been affected the mind of investigator when he or she
is conducting the research. This the way, the researcher have generated interest and curiosity and
this the key reason why have investigator have selected this topic that is impact on decision
making, perception and motivation of the Thai people due to change in the visa waiver to Japan.
Researcher has good knowledge and understand with regard to this topic and this s the main he
has decided to chose this topic, so that he or she can explore more knowledge about the topic.
With that investigator have relevant knowledge and understanding about the different policy of
visa requirement of the Japan for the Thai citizen and this is the another reason the scholar have
selected this topic or study (Laube and Heidler, 2016). Other than that he or she has detailed and
enough information related to the subject which guide him or her to conduct the successful
research.
As the change in visa requirements by Japan for Thailand people have great impact on
the perception, decision making and motivation of Thai tourist. There are several factors that
have been considered by the tourist when they are travelling to different counties from which
visa requirement is one of the most important factor. This impact have influenced the
investigator to select this topic and conduct the further research (Wasiński, 2016).
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Focus and purpose
The key objective of this research is to examine the change in decision making,
perception and motivation of the Thai people due to change in the visa waiver to Japan. The
investigator actually want to know what are the different factors that affect the decision making
of the tourist when they are travelling to the international countries. The whole dissertation
explains the importance of Visa requirement when tourist are visiting to the different countries
specially Thai citizen visit to Japan (Xiaojuan, 2016). There is change in the visa requirement of
Thailand people when they travel to Japan and this have made several changes in the decision
making, perception and motivation of Thailand tourist. Thus, it is very significant for the
researcher and tourist to know the importance of Visa when they are entering into Japan.
Research Problem and Hypothesis
Due to change in the Visa requirement policy and visa waiver to Japan, perception,
motivation, thinking and decision making of the Thai tourist have been changed significantly.
There are several factors which influence the decision making of the tourist when they are
travelling to the different countries in order to seek knowledge and understanding of different
culture and traditions. In this research project, scholar is going to evaluate the different factors
that influence the decision making of the tourist (Bangwayo-Skeete and Skeete, 2017). And how
visa requirement will influence the motivation and behaviour of people to travel different
counties.
Dissertation structure
The dissertation includes different chapters which help the scholar to achieve its aim and
objectives. The chapter have been discussed are as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter include the brief introduction about the topic that how
the there is change occurs in making, perception and motivation of the Thai people due to
change in the visa waiver to Japan. Other than that introduction chapter, research aim, objectives
and question have framed and these bases, themes of literature review have been prepared.
Moreover, it consists of detail information, some facts and figures about the tourist people and
Thai tourist. On the basis of detail description, the brief of Literature review, Research
Methodology, Data analysis and interpretation, Conclusion and Recommendation have been
included in the introduction chapter
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Chapter 2: Literature review: It is another important chapter in the dissertation. After
completion of introduction, researcher start collecting and gathering the background information
about the topic which helps in to support its primary research. In literature review several themes
have been made on the basis of research question, aim and objectives. The themes help the
scholar to classify the data into specify parts by which he or she can collect the data in specific
manner (Bangwayo-Skeete and Skeete, 2017). The themes include in this dissertation are factors
that influence the decision making of tourist to travel different countries. Relationship between
the motivation and behavioural, decision making, visa requirement policy of Japan etc.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology: Once the Literature review chapter have been completed
by the scholar and different themes are made by the researcher, the next chapter is research
methodology. This is also another important chapter for the dissertation which helps the
researcher to identify the different research methodology techniques which is being applied to
the dissertation. It includes several methods such as research philosophy, approach, data
collection, data analysis and interpretation, sampling and research design. The key aim of
writing the research methodology to justify the techniques selected by the investigator.
Chapter 4: Data analysis and interpretation: Once the research methodology chapter have
been completed effectively in the dissertation, another chapter is data interpretation and analysis.
This is another significant chapter in the dissertation where the scholar evaluate and interpret the
data which have been collected on the basis of primary and secondary basis. In this chapter,
investigator select and execute the effective techniques which helps him or her to analyse and
interpret the data in effective way (Chang and Hsu, 2017).
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation: Once the data have been collected and
interpreted, now the researcher need to draw out the conclusion that what are effect and causes
of the research that have been made by him or her. Another aspect of this chapter is
recommendation, where researcher serve some recommendation which helps to fill the gaps
which is effective for the organisation. Thus, this chapter serve the result and outcome of whole
research project.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Different factors that influence the decision making of the Thai people when they are travelling.
According to the view of Khuong and Thanh, (2016) there are several factors that
influence the decision making of international tourist when they are travelling to abroad. The
author have said that travelling to the international countries is not easy task, people when travel
to other countries there are several factors that are included in it such as budget, purpose etc. The
important factors that influence the decision of people when they are crossing destination to visit
is their purpose. Purpose plays very significant role, there are several purposes when people are
travelling to abroad such as education, cultural experience, business, adventure, interacting with
new people, leaning new things, expanding the perspective, Relaxing and rejuvenating,
Celebrating etc. These are the key reason why the decision of people influence when they are
travelling to the new country. When the person have stuck into their daily life, they have got
bored with their daily routine. In order to find excitement and entertainment and having new
experience and challenges they try to visit different places. Travelling is the best way by which
people can test their abilities and skills. It helps people to push themselves out of their limits and
get out of their comfort zone (Czaika and Neumayer, 2017). The person can discover that how
resourceful they are when they are expose to the experience, people and places. When the person
is going to visit new country, they do not know different language and culture of that country, so
it is very challenging for him to communicate with the different people. When the person is
going to explore new place in order to challenge themselves then he or she will find that place
which is totally unknown fir him or her so that he or she can find his capabilities. This is the
factor that can influence the decision making pf the person when they are travelling to abroad.
In the contradicting view of Horner and Swarbrooke, (2016) learning is the another
strong reason why people to travel abroad. The person wants to learn new things and experience
some unfamiliar new activities in order to learn new skills and knowledge. Seeing the world is
more educational than studying international tourism in some school or colleges. Doing some
crash course helps the person to have cultural intelligence related to different culture, their
history, geography and sociology. This crash course helps the person when they are travelling to
different counties. They do not feel hesitation while communicating with new people because
they know language and different types of gestures and postures. When the person is studying
international tourism course, he or she wants to travel different countries. Every destination has
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