Dining Alone Behavior of Thai Solo Travelers in Bangkok

Abstract

This research study was conducted with the following objectives: 1) to study the solo dining behavior of Thai tourists traveling in Bangkok, 2) to explore their perceptions of eating alone, and 3) to examine the demographic factors of Thai tourists who travel and dine alone in Bangkok. This present study was governed by quantitative approach with employment of questionnaire as research instrument targeting 400 individuals who had previous experience traveling and dining alone in various areas of Bangkok. The study found that the majority of respondents dined alone during dinner (58.20%) and preferred to eat at restaurants for convenience (66.50%). This led to a positive dining experience for 72.50% of respondents, and 85.60% reported a high level of satisfaction. Furthermore, the majority strongly agreed that, despite dining alone while traveling, they paid attention to the nutritional value of the food they chose (mean = 4.45). Many respondents chose to dine alone during their trips as a way to spend time with themselves and to take better care of themselves (mean = 4.32), and they no longer feared eating alone while traveling (mean = 4.21). Hypothesis testing revealed that demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, physical health, and economic status significantly influenced solo dining behavior in terms of meal timing, dining location, reasons for dining alone, perceived experience, and satisfaction at a significance level of 0.05. Additionally, demographic variables including gender, age, marital status, education level, monthly income, occupation, physical health, and economic status significantly affected respondents' attitudes toward solo dining while traveling at the 0.05 significance level.