OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES OF LONG-STAY ACCOMMODATION IN THAILAND

Abstract: Tourism industry plays an important role in developing countries like Thailand. An acccommodation is a key expense of almost every trip, therefore accommodation development need to be taken into account in order to attract target tourists from other countries. The long-stay tourism is important since the longer the tourists’ stay means the more receipts spent. Subsequently, many studies have been focused both on the tourism and real estate sides about long-stay accommodation in various types. Long-stay tourism in Thailand is an outstanding tourism alternative. Tourists from high cost of living, cold countries and aging population are the target market as we can see from the Americans, Europeans and Japanese tourists. Accordingly, future demographic structure is expected to increase so that cause emerging niche market called retirement home as a sub-set of the long-stay tourism. This thesis analyzes the attributes of the long-stay tourism in Thailand. The Scandinavian tourists are selected case studies according to their qualification and potential to be prospective customers. The opinions from the demand side, Scandinavian tourist-investors, were collected. Currently many projects of the Scandinavian are in the markets and will continue more as a consequence of predictions following tourism trend. In contrast, the study shows that there are some obstacles, which decelerate the growth of this market. Government policy is key to drive tourism and real estate sector to get along together. Until now, there is no exact solution but some alternatives from relevant market in sample countries were exemplified in order to develop tourism accommodation with the long-stay tourism in Thailand later on.