Developing an Environmental Health Model for Health Tourism Destinations and Sustainability in Western Thailand

Abstract

                The objectives of this research are 1) to study environmental health characteristics of health tourism destinations in the western region 2) to study factors affecting environmental health characteristics of health tourism destinations in the western region 3) to study the satisfaction of tourists on environmental health factors of health tourism destinations in the western region and 4) to develop the environmental health model in the health tourism destinations.
                 A mixed method was applied for data collecting. This research was divided into 4 phase. The first and the second phase were qualitative research. In-depth interview and focus group were used for studying environmental health with 50 stakeholders. The third phase was to studied tourists' satisfaction with 358 tourists. The fourth phase was to develop the model and test it.
                 This research found that, the environmental health in health tourism destinations is characterized by the appropriateness of destinations’ context. It consists of 7 environmental health factors, including 1) food sanitation, 2) supply of drinking water, 3) solid waste management, 4) toilet management, 5) waste water disposal, 6) management accommodation and 7) safety health tourism. This research selected 5 health tourism routes in the western region, namely Route 1, Pala U Community, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Route 2, Nong Ya Plong Community, Petchaburi Province, Route 3, Ban Nong Rong Community, Kanchanaburi Province, Route 4, Lao Stud Community Klak, Ratchaburi Province, Route 5, Mahasawat Canal Community, Nakhon Pathom Province. Tourists were satisfied with the environmental health management in the medium to high levels. Which the 5 selected places. most of the places do not have a good accommodation service and some places have a homestay which managed by the house owner and depends on the owner's decision. the test is to evaluate 6 aspects in total of 25 issues. A model of the environmental health will lead 5 tourism destinations to be the sustainable health tourism destinations if they develop and improve the environmental health management in 25 issues, including 141 practices.

Article history : Received 9 May 2020
                             Revised 10 August 2020
                             Accepted 14 August 2020
                             SIMILARITY INDEX = 2.97 %