Guidelines for Development of Accommodations Business for Foreign Tourists to Support the Thai Tourism Industry in the Digital Age

Abstract

This research aimed to study the development of a structural equation model for the accommodation business for foreign tourists, to support the Thai tourism industry in the digital age. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Quantitative data was collected using questionnaires from 500 entrepreneurs or executives responsible for accommodation businesses in Thailand. Descriptive statistics, reference statistics, and multiple statistics were used for data analysis. The results showed that the guidelines for the development of accommodation businesses for foreign tourists, in order of priority, are: 1) marketing communication (X̅ = 4.31), 2) service quality (X̅ = 4.30), 3) innovation and technology (X̅ = 4.28), and 4) business network (X̅ = 4.24). The hypothesis testing results indicated that resort and hotel businesses pay attention to the development of accommodation businesses for foreign tourists and that the difference was statistically significant at 0.05. The analysis of the developed structural equation model passed the evaluation criteria and was consistent with the empirical data. The probability of chi-squared was 0.144, the relative chi-squared was 1.118, the corresponding index was 0.965, and the root mean squared error was 0.015.