The Skill Gap Assessment of Sales and Marketing Personnel in Hotel Business, Phuket, Thailand
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Nowadays, information and communication technology (ICT) plays a significant role and has brought about changes in sales and marketing practices, resulting in a heightened demand for digital marketing skills and professionals across all sectors of business. Consequently, it becomes crucial to assess whether there exists a gap in sales and digital marketing skills among hotel sales and marketing personnel, in response to the evolving business landscape. The study employed a quantitative methodology, utilizing a purposive sampling technique. A total of 210 samples were collected, and the data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, including the application of a paired sample T-test. The findings revealed that out of the 39 skill gaps examined, 34 exhibited statistically significant differences between the currently acquired skill levels and the anticipated future skill requirements. Notably, the largest skill gap was observed in the domain of search engine marketing (SEM). As a result, the study indicated that hotel sales and marketing personnel require reskilling and upskilling initiatives to obtain a competitive advantage in the hotel industry within the context of the digital economy.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Statements and opinions expressed in articles herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editors or publisher.
Article, information, text, image, etc. which are published in Journal of International Studies, belong to Journal of International Studies. If anybody or any organization would like to use part or whole of them, they must receive written permission from Journal of International Studies before usage.
References
Abuhashesh, M., Al-Khasawneh, M., Al-Dmour, R., & Masa’Deh, R. (2019). The impact of Facebook on Jordanian consumers’decision process in the hotel selection. IBIMA Business Review, 928418. DOI : 10.5171/2019.928418
Adepoju, O. O., & Aigbavboa, C. O. (2021). Assessing knowledge and skills gap for construction 4.0 in a developing
economy. Journal of Public Affairs, 21(3), e2264. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2264
Asyhari, A. and Yuwalliatin, S., (2020). Factors affecting salesperson performance in SMES creative industry of Central
Java. Jurnal Aplikasi Manajemen, 18(1), pp.168-180. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21776/ub.jam.2020.018.01.17
Chachamon Smart, Peter De Maeyer, & Davorin Kralj. (2019). Competencies and Digital Marketing Skills – Thailand
Case. International Journal of Economics and Management Systems, 4, 73-186. https://www.iaras.org/iaras/filedownloads/ijems/2019/007-0023(2019).pdf
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, f., (2016). Digital Marketing. 6th ed. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.
Day, G. (2011). Closing the Marketing Capabilities Gap. Journal Of Marketing, 75(4), 183-195. Doi: 10.1509/jmkg.75.4.183.
Di Gregorio, A., Maggioni, I., Mauri, C. and Mazzucchelli, A., (2019). Employability skills for future marketing
professionals. European management journal, 37(3), pp.251-258. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.03.004
Duverger, P. (2013). Curvilinear Effects of User-Generated Content on Hotels ’Market Share. Journal of Trave Research, 52(4), 465-478. Doi:10.1177/0047287513478498
Elhajjar, S. (2021). Digital marketing jobs: What are recruiters looking for?. Journal of Education for Business, 97(1),
-35. DOI:10.1080/08832323.2021.1884520
Futrell, Charles M. (2006). Fundamental of Selling: Customer for life through services. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Ghotbifar, F., Marjani, M. R., & Ramazani, A. (2017). Identifying and assessing the factors affecting skill gap in digital
marketing in communication industry companies. Independent Journal of Management & Production, 8(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v8i1.507
Gupta, A., & Nimkar, N. (2020). Role of content marketing and it’s potential on lead generation. Annals of Tropical
Medicine and Public Health, 23(17). DOI:10.36295/ASRO.2020.231710
Hashim, K. F., & Fadhil, N. A. (2017). Engaging with customer using social media platform: a case study of Malaysia
hotels. Procedia Computer Science, 124, 4-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.12.123
Islam, M., Nasira, S., Pritom, S. T., Paul, S. K., & Rabbi, R. (2016). Influence of Interpersonal Relationship Skills in
Salespersons Service Performance: A Study on Hair Saloons & Beauty Parlors of Bangladesh. IOSR Journal
of Business and Management, 18(2), 77-90. DOI: 10.9790/487X-18217790
Jawabreh, O., Mahmoud, R., & Hamasha, S. A. (2020). Factors influencing the employees service performances in
hospitality industry case study AQBA five stars hotel. Geo Journal of Tourism and Geosites, 29(2), 649-661.
DOI: 10.30892/gtg.29221-496
Kantanantha, N., & Awichanirost, J. (2022). Analyzing and forecasting online tour bookings using Google Analyticsmetrics. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 21(3), 354-365. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41272-021-00338-7
Kim, M. H., & Jeon, K. S. (2019). Relationships between Personal Competence and Sales Performance of Sales Representatives: Focusing on Sales Representatives of Automobile Dealership, Asia-Pacific. Journal of
Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship, 14(1), 17-32 http://koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201913457809018.pdf.
Lanz, L., & Carmichael, M. (2020). Digital Marketing Budgets for Independent Hotels: Continuously Shifting to RemainCompetitive in the Online World. Boston: School of Hospitality Administration.
Lanz, L. (2020). Hotel E-commerce: Navigating the Complex Hospitality Digital Marketing Landscape. Boston: Schoolof Hospitality Administration.
Elizabeth Mann, L. (2019, 6 December). REPORT Understanding the skills gap and what employers can do about it.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/understanding- the-skills-gap-and-what-employers-can-do-about-it/
Mariia, P. (2017). Digital Marketing Strategy with the Help of Web Analytics: Case study: Best Western Plus Hotel
Haaga. Bachelor’s degrees thesis. Hotel, restaurant and tourism management. Haaga-Helia University.
Parvez, S. J., Moyeenudin, H. M., Arun, S., Anandan, R.,& Janahan, S. K. (2018). Digital marketing in hotel industry. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(2.21), 288-290. DOI: 10.14419/ijet.v7i2.21.12383
Pete, L., & Lanz, L. (2014, 1 February). The digital direction: hotel marketing budgets and a digital 101 for hotels.
https://www.hospitalitynet.org/file/152005314.pdf
Popescu, L., Iancu, A., Avram, M., Avram, D., & Popescu, V. (2020). The role of managerial skills in the sustainable development of SMEs in Mehedinti County, Romania. Sustainability, 12(3), 1119.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031119
Qian, J., Lin, P. M., Law, R., & Li, X. (2022). Lack of IT and digital marketing professionals in hospitality: is it
education's fault?. Heliyon, 8(12). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12002
Siddoo, V., Sawattawee, J., Janchai, W., & Thinnukool, O. (2019). An exploratory study of digital workforce competency
in Thailand. Heliyon, 5(5), 1723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01723
Surawattananon N., Reancharoen T., Prajongkan W., Chunanantatham S., Simakorn Y., and Gultawatvichai P. (2021, 3 June). Revitalising Thailand’s tourism sector. https://www.bot.or.th/Thai/MonetaryPolicy/EconomicConditions/AAA/250624_WhitepaperVISA.pdf
Tavakol, M. and Dennick, R., (2011). Making sense of Cronbach'salpha. International journal of medical education,
, 53. DOI: 10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd
Tse, T. (2013). The Marketing Role of the Internet in Launching a hotel: The Case of Hotel ICON. Journal of Hospitality
Marketing & Management, 22(8), 895-908. DOI:10.1080/19368623.2013.734224
Rajan, S. (2015, 23 March). Interpersonal Skills for Sales Force Effectiveness -- A Survey on Indian Pharmaceutical
Industry. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2572826.
Rentz, J. O., Shepherd, C. D., Tashchian, A., Dabholkar, P. A., & Ladd, R. T. (2002). A measure of selling skill: Scale
development and validation. Journal of personal selling & sales management, 22(1), 13-21. DOI:10.1080/08853134.2002.10754289
Royle, J., & Laing, A. (2014). The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 65-73. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.11.008
Udayana, I. B. N., Farida, N., & Ardyan, E. (2019). Selling relationship quality to increase salesperson performance in
the pharmacy industry. International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 33(2), 262-285. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSOM.2019.100289
UNWTO. (2021). Digital Transformation. https://www.unwto.org/digital-transformation.
Viglia, G., Minazzi, R., & Buhalis, D. (2016). The influence of eword-of-mouth on hotel occupancy rate. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(9), 2035-2051. DOI: 10.1108/ijchm-05-2015-0238
World Economic Forum (2020, 20 October). The Future of Jobs Report 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf
WSI. (2013). Digital Minds 12 Things Every Business Needs to Know About Digital Marketing. 2nd ed. Canada:
Friesn Press.
Yamanae, T. (1973). Statistics: An Introductory Analysis. London: John Weather Hill.