A Study of Tourist Perceptions of Overseas Travel Stress While Visiting Bangkok, Thailand

Traveling has long been considered one of the best ways to release the stress caused by work and life. But in fact, uncertainties and negative experiences can break down the benefits and may make travelers feel stressed. A considerable amount of literature in tourism focuses on topic areas like destination building, market operation, and consumer satisfaction, but ignores one important aspect which negates many of the positive benefits of tourism—stress. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to examine foreign tourists’ perceptions of travel related stress on their visits to Bangkok, Thailand, and test how demographic and traveler characteristics act on them by such data statistical treatments as independent sample t-test and one way ANOVA. Descriptive research and questionnaires are used as the research method and the research instrument in this study, which involved 384 tourists. Results reveal that there are significant differences in foreign tourists’ perceptions of stress, which can be classified in terms of nationality, personality, type of tour, purpose of tour, group size, and familiarity with fellow travelers.