Tourists' perception of the full moon party on Pha-Ngan Island, Thailand

The most common perception of Pha-ngan Island, Thailand is that of the Full Moon Party held monthly on the Full Moon night. Recent advertisements of Pha-ngan Island on Intemet websites describe the Full Moon Party as follows: People uniting to party and playing music which excites and encourages an uncontrolled atmosphere of nudity as well as drug and alcohol use. The purpose of this study was to examine tourists' perceptions of Pha-ngan Island and the Full Moon Party. To examine perceptions, a study was undertaken with every third tourists departing from Pha-ngan Island boat pier in June and July 2003. A study was undertaken from 154 visitors. The instrument for this study was a self-reporting questionnaire which was comprised of two sections: (a) travel characteristics and demographic profiles and (b) tourists' perceptions of Pha-ngan Island and the Full Moon Party consisting of 31 attributes.

Descriptive statistics were used to report demographic profiles and overall travel characteristics of the respondents. More than half of the respondents were young (18-25 years of age), single, male, international tourists and had visited the Full Moon Party. Most of the respondents tended to stay on the island for a short period between 1-7 days, stayed in a hut or bungalow that was non-air conditioned, had little personal expenses (between $l-$50 US per day), and traveled with friends or family members.