Sakda Kajornbun. Local administrative organization capacity development for tourism promotion in Andaman coastal provinces. Doctoral Degree(Public Policy and Public Management). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2019.
Local administrative organization capacity development for tourism promotion in Andaman coastal provinces
Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to (1) study an operational status of Local Administrative Organization (LAO) for tourism promotion; (2) investigate organizational capacity for tourism promotion along with capacity components; and (3) offer LAO capacity development approaches. A mixed methods research was employed by divided into 3 phases: (1) conducting field trips to interview tourism promotion administrators and operational officials at 10 tourism outstanding LAOs in 5 provinces to look for the answers on their current operational status and capacity as well as its components and develop them into a capacity structural equation model for tourism promotion; (2) testing the model, in a quantitative form, with empirical data to see the consistency together with the relation of cause and effect among capacity variables through a questionnaire survey with LAO personnel in the Andaman Coastal provinces in which 556 questionnaire sets were returned from 208 units; and (3) interviewing information providers who were administrators, operational officials, provincial local administrators, tourism academics, and local administration academics for recommendation on LAO capacity development approaches. The findings from data analysis reveal that LAOs in the Andaman Coastal provinces perform the tourism promotion missions by focusing on preparing sufficient infrastructure development to cope with the increasing number of tourists, and conducting tourism service development being done by both LAO and private enterprise as well as performing ongoing tourism stimulation activity projects. As for the organizational capacity, it comprises 5 components: strategic leadership, internal management, network and relation, infrastructure management, and financial management. It is found on testing the capacity structural equation model that capacity consistencies with empirical data are X2= 77.43, df=65, P=0.138, X2/df =1.191, CFI=1.00 RMSEA=0.010 SRMR=0.009 which demonstrate that factors of positive direct effects toward tourism promotion are network and relation, financial management, and infrastructure management with the affected coefficient of 0.735, 0.188 and 0.143, respectively. Moreover, strategic leadership and internal management also show indirect effects with the affected coefficient of 0.162 and 0.087. LAO capacity approaches for tourism promotion include (a) emphasis on local resources as a tourism selling point; (b) operation of network style being comprised different partners within a community, e.g., state and private sectors, entrepreneurs, especially local public participation in order to be in line with the LAO establishment; and (c) the development on LAO administrators and staffs to continuously update their understanding on the roles of tourism promotion and create management mechanism to support such promotion. administration.