WELLNESS TOURISM MODEL BY THE NEW NORMAL THE SOUTHERN ANDAMAN REGION
Wellness tourism in Thailand was facing the problem of natural calamities, a lack of life and their belonging security, and service staffs with limited proficiency in foreign language communication, that all contribute to the negative image of services. The objectives of this research were to: 1) study the importance of factors influencing the wellness tourism promotion by the new normal in the southern Andaman region; 2) study tourist behavior. Infrastructure, public relations, and tourism standard which influencing the wellness tourism promotion by the new normal; and 3) proposed a new model of wellness tourism promotion by the new normal in the southern Andaman region. This research used mixed research which is quantitative research and qualitative research. The quantitative research sample consisted of 360 business entrepreneurs in the southern Andaman region, obtained from stratified sampling and using the criteria 20 times of 18 observation variables. The tool was a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analyzed using a structural equation model. Qualitative Research used a semi-structured interview with a sample of 17 people, including executives, government officials. Wellness tourism business entrepreneurs, Tourism Association of Thailand, tour leader and tourists. The results of the research found that: 1) tourist behavior, infrastructure, public relations, tourism standard, and the promotion of wellness tourism is of high importance; 2) Factors influencing the promotion of wellness tourism in a new normal were tourist behavior, tourism standard, public relations, and infrastructure, respectively; and 3) Wellness tourism model by the new normal in the southern Andaman region follows the following principles: cultivating quality personnel capable of adapting to the new normal’s context for tourism, diversifying tourism and adding value to Wellness products and services, modifying the environment to make it more facilitating to wellness tourists; and choosing locally sourced, high-quality, organics ingredients. The research findings can help to private business owners in tourism business in determining the management direction for promoting wellness tourism that complies with standards for the safety of people and property.
Promoting Wellness Tourism / New Normal / Southern Andaman Region