The Impact of Traffic Congestions on Tourist Behavior: Case study of Chiang Mai, Thailand Ka Leong, Chong Centre for Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Management, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia danielc@sunway.edu.my ABSTRACT: Traffic congestions in major cities of Thailand is a persistent issue to foreign tourists. 2 major cities, Bangkok and Chiang Mai were perceived the most congested cities in Thailand. However, Chiang Mai was considered the worst due to poor public transportation systems as compared to Bangkok. This research aim to explore the condition and the impacts of traffic congestion on tourist attitude pertaining to travelling within Chiang Mai. Qualitative approach was used in this research. Interviews and site observations were conducted as the form of data collection. ABC Models of Attitudes was used as an approach to assists questionnaire development for interview. While, bottleneck approach which relates to demand exceeding capacity in a punctual location by TRB (2000) was used as the congestion indicator in site observation. Past literatures concerning tourist behaviour and traffic congestion in tourist area were incorporated to triangulate and to support the data gathered. The findings denote that the foreign tourists perceived negatively towards the traffic congestion in Chiang Mai. This perception have led them to prefer destinations that are away from traffic and within walking distance from their accommodations. Keyword: Tourist behavior, Tourism Congestions, Traffic Congestions, Thailand Tourism. Citation: Chong, K.L (2015). The impact of traffic congestion on tourist behaviour: case study of Chiang Mai. In Proceedings of the 14 th ApacChrie Conference 2016, Bangkok, Thailand, 11-13 May 2016 (pp. 290- 300). Dusit Thani College Thailand. INTRODUCTION Traffic congestions within major cities in Thailand like Bangkok and Chang Mai is widely commented by news, travel websites, travel blogs and travel advisory board around the world. BBC news (2012) ranked Bangkok as one of the top 10 most traffic jam place in the world. In fact, traffic in Chiang Mai, the second largest city of Thailand is considered worst due to poor public transportation system that could not relieve the traffic congestion. The growth of traffic congestion issue critically affects tourists travelling within Chiang Mai (TripAdvisor, 2013; CMCN, 2013; Thaivisa, 2009). According to City News (2012), Chiang Mai experiences smoking traffic congestion approximately 12 hours per day. Citylife (2012) states that the number of vehicles in Chiang Mai rise rapidly which leads to traffic congestion. The traffic congestion usually comes from the extreme delays contributed by congestion which shows no signs of declining (Sperling & Gordon, 2009). Evidently, tourists’ comments gathered from TripAdvisor (2015) has indicated that many travelers were unsatisfied with the traffic condition in Chiang Mai. As such, it was believed that the tourist attitude can be influenced by poor traffic congestion. As traffic congestion fails to estimate the arrival time, it creates perception of uncertainty among the foreign tourists which then negatively influence their attitude towards visiting Chiang Mai (Mogan, 2013). This assumption is also supported by Siri (2009) suggesting that attitude of the foreign tourists can be easily influenced by the poor traffic condition in a destination. Hence, this research aims to explore the impacts of traffic congestion on tourist attitude formation pertaining to travelling within Chiang Mai. This study was centred on evaluating the traffic condition and attitudes of the foreign tourists towards the traffic situation in Chiang Mai. In specific, tourist attitude was broken down into 3 stages of attitude formation: 1) cognitive, 2) affective and 3) behaviour attitudes. 3 research questions pertaining to the research objectives were formulated: