Abstract
Phayao is one of the northern provinces in Thailand. It has variety and unique geographical and cultural tourist attractions with few travellers’ knowledge of this fact. In 2011, the province came up with such vision intended to develop tourism under the programme “Safety Agriculture and Sustainable Tourism”. The local government created a great deal of tourism plans in order to support tourism activities. However, the results were not successful because those tourism plans lacked tourism marketing understanding. The purpose of this research is to develop the better understanding of tourism marketing in term of sustainable tourism development in Phayao province. Mixed methods of both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed as research methodology. Questionnaire surveys were conducted with 400 samples, which were Thai tourists. Furthermore, focus group techniques were employed with 10 experts from related fields, namely tourism, marketing, and policy making fields (from both government and private sectors). The findings of this research are focusing on three major issues: 1) Thai tourist behaviour, 2) tourism marketing mixture in Phayao province, 3) developing of tourism marketing in Phayao province. According to the Thai tourist behaviour, the results revealed the information about the tourists in the following aspects: 1) length of stay (1 day), 2) travelling cost (1700 baht), 3) activities (health tourism and soft adventure), 4) accommodation (hotel), 5) tourism resource (nature and culture). In addition tourism marketing in Phayao province should be developed as follows: 1) planning, 2) product and service development, 3) tourism network, 4) human resource development, 5) price, 6) friend-to-friend, 7) government cooperation.
Highlights
Nowadays, tourism is one of the most important industries for the economic development and prosperity worldwide
Development in Phayao Province, Thailand satisfaction [3]. These problems highlight the importance for good management practices that will make the tourism industry sustainable
In order to develop tourism marketing, the qualitative method was used by conducting a focus group with 10 experts within the tourism field, marketing field, and policy maker field
Summary
Tourism is one of the most important industries for the economic development and prosperity worldwide. Development in Phayao Province, Thailand satisfaction [3] These problems highlight the importance for good management practices that will make the tourism industry sustainable. Stated issues concerning Phayao has various types of tourist attractions, which are: 1) natural attractions such as Kwan Phayao (Phayao Lake), Phu Lanka Mountain, Phusang National Park, Phunang National Park, Dinosaur Park, Luang Mountain, Angel Cliff, 2) historical and archaeological sites such as the Cultural Hall, Phra That Chom Si Temple, King Monument, Ancient Wiang Lor, Tai Lue temple, 3) all-year-round festivals in Phayao, for example, Jewel industrial festival, Phayao New Year festival, Tau Lue New Year, Lychee festival, Traditions merit to God, Water festival, Lantern festival [7] These tourism attractions and activities can attract and stimulate an increasing number of tourists to Phayao. This research adopted the perspective of Eber [13] in sustainable tourism, that it should be used to sustain and continue in developing any tourism products, cultivating good perception to tourists of tourism destinations and tourism personnel and supporting the key component of the supply side
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