Development of Marine Tourism and Sport Center Model in Thailand

Abstract

Abstract

            The purpose of this study was to research three main objectives; to study the general condition of the development of marine tourism and sports center model in Thailand, to study the development of marine tourism and sports center model in Thailand and to study and evaluate the effectiveness of the development of marine tourism and sports center model in Thailand. The research was conducted by collecting data from marine sports tourism establishers, marine sports practitioners, and water sports tourists. The data collection tools consisted of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, effectiveness assessment, qualitative data analysis using content analysis, and quantitative data analysis using the calculated mean and standard deviation.

           The results of the study on the development of marine tourism and sports center model in Thailand found that the general conditions were distinguished by marine sports tourism destinations. For example, the southern region of Thailand. There were oceans on both sides of Thailand – Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. In the central region of Thailand, it was a lowland with Chao Phraya River as the main source of marine tourism. In the northeastern region of Thailand, they had Mekong, Chi, and Mun Rivers, which allowed the boating business to be organized throughout, including Ping River, Wang River, Yom River, and Nan River. Organizing marine sports activities with as traditional long boat races was accordance to McKinney Framework (McKinney 7-S Framework), which consisted of Strategy ( = 4.18), Structure ( = 4.36), System ( = 4.35), Staff ( = 4.45), Skill ( = 4.43), Style ( = 4.34), and Shared values ( = 4.16). Moreover, the evaluation of usefulness had the most weight, followed by the evaluation of likelihood, correctness, and suitability respectively.

            The development of marine tourism and sports center model in Thailand had been studied and developed, and it could be applied to the operating system of tourism and marine sports business at a higher level.

Keywords:  Marine tourism, McKinney 7-S framework, Sport center model