Paper Title
Constraints in Travel Participation: A Case of Thai Tourists Taking an Outbound Trip

Abstract
This study examines travel constraints and perceived risks faced by Thai tourists in travelling abroad. As the primary aims of this study is to gain rich, in-depth, and holistic understanding of how Thai tourists perceive and interpret their constraints and risks in taking an outbound trip, it employed an interpretive paradigm utilising qualitative research approach. The data were drawn from 33 respondents who had never taken an outbound trip, neither by themselves nor with a tour operator. The number of the respondents was justified by the saturation point, which is when no theme was found to emerge from the data. These respondents were selected using purposive sampling and snowball sampling. The methods used to collect the data include semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The collected data were analysed by thematic analysis technique. The findings indicated that all the respondents in this study had faced limitations or constraints in travelling abroad. These constraints could be classified into 3 main groups: (i) intrapersonal constraints (i.e. fear of travelling with certain modes of transportation, language barriers; fear of terrorism and/or natural disaster, and having health problems); (ii)interpersonal constraints (i.e. do not have appropriate person to accompany when travelling, and having family burden); and (iii) structural constraints (i.e. insufficient time to travel, and insufficient budget to travel).The findings of this research could give a valuable insight for tour operators and other tourism-related businesses on the factors or causes that obstruct Thai tourists to take an outbound trip and how to overcome these constraints and perceived risks. Index Terms – travel constraints, travel participation; Thai tourists; outbound trip