Abstract:
The objectives of this independent study were: 1) to study marketing factors influencing a hotel selection of foreign tourists in Pa Tong subdistrict, Kathu district, Phuket province, 2) to study behavior of how foreign tourists selected hotels, 3) to study a relationship between personal factors and behavior of foreign tourists in selecting hotels in Pa Tong subdistrict, Kathu district, Phuket province. And 4) to study rankings of marketing factors. Participants were 400 foreign tourists in Pa Tong subdistrict. Questionnaires were used. Frequency values, percentile, mean value, chi-square of independence, one-way ANOVA and t-test were statistical methods used for data analysis.
Findings showed that almost respondents were women, aged between 41 and 50, married, European, entrepreneurs, had income between 40,001-60,000 US$, and held bachelor degrees. Most of respondents visited Thailand for relaxation. They came with 1-2 persons who were relatives, came by car, stayed in Pa Tong for 3-7 days. Reservations were made by e-mails and websites, were influenced by husbands or wives. Travel plan was made 1-3 months in advance. Room were boutique style and near by the beach, They used credit cards to pay for the twin bed rooms at 3,001-5,000 baht. Most obtained hotel information from the Internet and wanted to come back again. Moreover, marketing factors influencing hotel selection in Pa Tong were eight factors. Overall marketing factors was ranked as important (7.86%).Product was ranked as mostly important (8.31%). Factor that were rated fairly important included quality (8.19%), process(8.18%), staff(8.12%), physical(7.67%), place(7.57%), price(7.48%) and promotion(7.33%) respectively. All 7 personal factors were related to buying behaviors of foreign tourists in selecting hotels.
WALAILAK UNIVERSITY. CENTER FOR LIBRARY RESOURCES AND EDUCATIONAL MEDIA