Destination Choice Intention of Young Tourist: A Comparative Study Between Indonesia and Thailand

Indonesia and Thailand are included in the top destinations for international visitors in ASEAN and tourism industry also plays a major role in contributing both countries’ GDP. Young tourist is becoming more and more a target to keep an eye on in tourism industry because travellers ages 15 to 29 accounted for an estimated 23% of all international travellers in 2015. Despite the enormous market, there is still limited study in youth tourism context. Previous research suggested that understanding the influence of consumption values towards the attitude to visit a destination is important and also there is a lack of literature in studying how travelers evaluate images of destinations that they have not visited, therefore this study examined how is the perceived image of Indonesia and Thailand by young tourist, their consumption values, and their intentions to visit the country. The data were collected by questionnaire and analyzed using SEM PLS. The results of this study is consumption values and eWOM have significant influence on perceived beneficial image. Consumption values and eWOM have significant influence on destination choice intention to Thailand for Indonesia young tourist, while perceived beneficial image only has significant influence on destination choice intention to Indonesia for Thailand young tourist.