Guidelines for Agro-tourism Development to a High-value Creative Economy of Bankumpattana Community Enterprise, Bangpae District, Ratchaburi Province

Abstract

         The objectives of this study were to investigate: 1) marketing communication tools and decision making in travelling to agro-tourism Bankumpattana Community Enterprise and 2) guidelines for agro-tourism development to a high-value creative economy of Bankumpattana Community Enterprise, Bangpae District, Ratchaburi Province. The sample group consisted of 384 Thai tourists derived by convenience sampling technique. Another group for more important information chosen by purposive sampling technique consisted of the director, assistant directors, and relevant staffs.

         The data were collected by questionnaires and interview analyzed by Multiple Regression Analysis and content analysis with the results as follows. 1) the marketing communication tools and decision making in travelling to agro-tourism was overall at high level. 2) the guidelines for agro-tourism development to a high-value creative economy of Bankumpattana Community Enterprise, Bangpae District, Ratchaburi Province consisted of 2 main aspects which can be concretely developed, i.e. a) marketing communication tools and b) potential development. a) According to marketing communication tools, there should be more media for advertisement and public relations through visitors’ word-of-mouth and social media. The community should also provide facilities and infrastructure including enough tourists’ parking places. b) According to potential development and community management model, the community enterprise should integrate creative change mixed with knowledge and local wisdom to create a high-value creative economy. There should be an inter-agency coordination of the organization related to agro-tourism and creative economy. The community should also provide systematic tourism activities in the community which yield advantages for the people in the community. The activities should be supported by Creative Economy Agency (Public organization) and other related agencies through the community, and 3) the hypothesis test showed that the marketing communication tools affected the decision making in travelling to Bankumpattana Community at 0.05 statistically significant level. When considering the impact of each independent variables of decision making, it was found that the impact value included advertisement (β=0.290), sales promotion (β=0.203), direct marketing (β=0.193), sales personal (β=0.136), marketing events (β=0.126), and public relations (β=0.124) respectively. The regression coefficient or predictive value was 0.752 (R=0.752) and the coefficient of multiple determination was 0.565 (R Square=0.565).