The Guidelines to Promote Tourism in Ubon Ratchathani to Conform to the Visitor Behavior

Abstract

This mixed-method research which integrated both quantitative
and qualitative methodology aimed 1) to study Thai visitors’ behavior
who traveled to Ubon Ratchathani, 2) to examine Thai visitors’
satisfaction towards tourism components in Ubon Ratchathani province
and, 3) to propose guidelines to promote tourism in Ubon Ratchathani
province in consistency with Thai visitors’ behavior who traveled to Ubon
Ratchathani province. Accordingly, this reseach applied descriptive
statistics including frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard
deviation and descriptive analysis.
.
The results revealed that most Thai visitors who traveled to
Ubon Ratchathani province were female aged between 21-30 years old
holding a bachelor’s degree and being employed by private sector. Also,
these visitors were reported to earn 20,001-30,000 baht per month,
reside in Sisaket province, and often traveled to Ubon Ratchathani
province on Saturdays and Sundays in July. Accompanied by friends,
most of these visitors managed their travel programs for purposes of
leisure. They traveled by private cars, stayed overnight and spent 2,001
- 3,000 baht per person on the trip expenses. In addition, most of
the visitors were first-time comers to Ubon Ratchathani province and
were expected to revisit. The information resouces which they relied on
included facebook and population media ( relatives, friends, and
acquaintances).
Regarding to the data obtained from the visitors concerning
potentiality of 5 tourism components in Ubon Ratchathani province to
facilitate the Thai visitors including attractions, activities,
accommodations, accessibility, and amenities, it was found that the
visitors were satisfied with the components of attractions and
accommodations; nonetheless, they were dissatisfied with the elements
of activities, accessibility, and amenities.
The guidelines to develop tourism in Ubon Ratchathani province
include tourist information prepared by tourism-related agencies to
introduce suitable time or season to visit each attraction in Ubon
Ratchathani province. Moreover, there should be public relation
distributing information to help the visitors make decision and plan their
trips, development on various patterns of activities, and opportunity for
the visitors to participate in the activities. On the part of accommodation
entrepreneurs, there should be development on entrepreneurial
network both within and in the vicinity of the province so as to create
cooperation to refer and distribute the visitors to other business
alliances. Additionally, the service staff should receive trainings on
practical skills appropriate to their positions as well as on communication
development in order to provide service satisfaction for the visitors.
Furthermore, public transportations should be developed to provide
more comfort. Along with this, guide signs for tourist attractions should
be unambiguous, well-maintained and in good condition. Such
maintenance should extend to include an inspection and repair of road
surface. Besides, the amenities should be constantly improved to readily
provide service to the visitors, for example visitor information center,
local tour guides, restrooms, signages, prohibition signs, warning signs,
quality food shops, parking space, and automatic teller machines. In
addition, there should be promotion on tourism management,
intregrated tourism administration among tourism-related agencies both
in public and private sectors, explicit communication on tourism image
of the province, and development on marketing communication through
various mediums which are consistent with contemporary behavior of
the visitors.