THE INFLUENCE OF WORD-OF-MOUTH (WOM) COMMUNICATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND TRUSTWORTHINESS AFFECTING TOURIST INTENTIONS IN THAILAND DURING THE 3RD WAVE OF COVID-19 OF THE PEOPLE IN BANGKOK

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study the impact of word-of-mouth communication on social media on tourism in Thailand in the 3rd wave of COVID-19 era of the people in Bangkok; to study the trustworthiness on tourism in Thailand in the 3rd wave of COVID-19 era of the people in Bangkok; 3) to study the intentions on tourism in Thailand in the third wave of Covid-19 era of the people in Bangkok; and 4) to study the ability of word-of-mouth communication on social media and trustworthiness on tourism  in Thailand and jointly predict the intention on tourism in Thailand in the third wave of Covid-19 era of the people in Bangkok. The population used in the study was a group of males and females aged 15 and over and living in Bangkok during the COVID-19 period. It was found that the total population was 4,719,691. The researcher determined the sample size by calculating from the G*Power program that two types of inferential statistics were used in this research including inference statistics and multiple regression analysis. A sample of 107 people was required. Moreover, to be referred as Generalization, the researcher determined the sample size using Taro Yamane's ready-made table with a 95% confidence level and a size of error at 5%. This made the sample size of this research a total of 400 people. The results of this research were as follows. The top three rankings of the impact of Word-of-mouth communication on social media on tourism in Thailand during the COVID-19 era were as follows: 1) collecting information from tourism reviews on social media before making decision to travel with an average of 3.32 or at the highest level; 2) reading the reviews of other tourists on accommodation or hotel prices during COVID-19 era for decision-making  with an average of 3.31 or at the highest level; and 3) reading the reviews of other tourists on travel program during COVID-19 era with an average of 3.91 or at the highest level.