Canonical Correlation Analysis Between the Communication Factors that Affect the Perception of Identity of the Talat Noi-Yaowarat Community Identity Through Storytelling and the use of “Artwork Manhole Covers” to Promote Cultural Tourism.

Abstract

This research article was conducted to serve the following objectives: 1) to study communication factors and storytelling through “artwork manhole covers” as a tool to promote cultural tourism in the Talat Noi -Yaowarat community, 2) to examine the perception of community identity in support of cultural tourism, and 3) to analyze the canonical correlation between communication factors and the perception of community identity through storytelling using the “artwork manhole covers”.A series of questionnaire inquiries with 5-Likert scale was employed to collect data from 400 Thai informants derived via simple random sampling. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, and percentage. In addition, canonical correlation was analyzed to examine relationship between communication factors and identity perception of the community.

The research findings revealed that tourists rated both the communication factors related to cultural tourism (M = 3.94, S.D. = 0.63) and the storytelling through “artwork manhole covers” (M = 4.24, S.D. = 0.63) at a high level. Overall perception of Talat Noi–Yaowarat’s community identity via manhole cover storytelling was also high (M = 4.42, S.D. = 0.48). Canonical correlation values between communication factors and identity perception were .823, .436, .273, and .245 respectively. The first two functions involved communication factors of tourists and story-telling were significantly correlated at the .01 statistical significance coefficient, while Functions 3–8 were not found to be significantly correlated. Furthermore, the canonical analysis of 14 communication variables and 8 identity perception variables showed mutual influence in two significant functions.