Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to specify strategy for value chain tourism in Ban Thung Rak. The study was a qualitative research in which in-depth interview was used for data collection. The interviews were given to9 conservationists, mangrove forest officials, community heads and traders and eco-tour companies. Action research was conducted by leading 30 tourists to travel along the specified route. For quantitative research, 300 sets of questionnaire were collected from tourists on the travel route inPhang Nga Province in order to assess perceptions / needs for visiting Phang Nga Province. The interpreting analysis was done with frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. One-way ANOVA, F-test, and one-way analysis of variance were used for testing the hypotheses. In case, differences in pairs were found significant in statistical results, the tests of the differences in pairs were conductedat the significance level of 0.05 or confidence level of 95%, and Multiple Regression Analysis was used for forecasting equation. To confirm the study results, the researcher used qualitative research in which the focus group was conducted to7 people who were project director of the Chaipattana Foundation Office, environmental project analyst of the Chaipattana Foundation office, the Chaipattana Foundation office staff and tour operators (group tours), and ecotourism representatives, all of whom weredivided into Gen-X, Gen-y , Gen-Z. The research found that the public relations forms that affected media awareness were ranked as follows: 1) The first rank was twitter which affected awareness of area (B = 359), management (B = 359), activity(B = 309), and participation (B = 302);. 2) The second rank was the words of mouth with friends which motivatedawareness of area (B = 150), activity (B = 349), and participation (B = 369). 3) The third rank was theState tourism media whichaffected awareness of area (B = 148 ), activity (B = 116), and participation (B = 198). 4) The fourth rank was Instagram affectingawareness of activity(B = 138) and participation (B = 217). In fact, every aspect was important for making the tourism publicrelations media successful 2. For the types of ecotourism, they were ranked as follows: 1) The first was Ko Phra Thong whichaffected the awareness of area (B = 159). 2)Setting up tent affected the awareness of area (B = 143), management (B = 352), activity (B = 159), and participation (B = 189). 3) Thalay Wak Nuat Mungkon affected awareness of area (B = 115). 4)Plant Conservationand Animal Viewing affectedawareness of area (B = 085), management (B = 206). 5) The last rank wasField trips which affected awareness of activity (B = 150) and participation (B =246). In addition, all components, namely areas, management, activities, and participationas well as communities and tourists will make the ecotourism model stable and sustainable.