THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOMESTAY MODEL OF COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE FOR STONE BRIDGE ECOTOURISM TO CERTIFY THAI HOMESTAY STANDARDS

Abstract

Thai homestay tourism requires to develop homestay to achieve Thai Homestay Standards, preparedness to serve tourists and public relations through offline and online channels for increasing tourists to the community. This research aimed to 1) study the potential of Homestay of Saphan Hin Eco-tourism Community Enterprise 2) develop a homestay model of Saphan Hin Eco-tourism Community Enterprise. Data were collected by conducting a survey, interview, group discussion by 10 group members and analyzing data using Content Analysis. The results showed that the strength of the homestay group are as follows: group leaders have: 1) strong leadership 2) good management and system 3) readiness to learn new things. For the weakness including: 1) the distance of attractions and the homestay are far away and complicated to travel 2) the communication and coordination are difficult. For the opportunities including: 1) tourists have the new trend to experience the folkways 2) the destination has the public relations through social media. For the obstacle including: 1) Covid-19 pandemic 2) inconvenient transportation 3) traveling changes according to the trends. According to Thai Homestay Standards, there are 10 standard indexes, including 1) accommodation 2) food 3) safety 4) hospitality of the host and members 5) tour programs 6) natural resources or environment 7) culture 8) value creation and value of community products 9) group management 10) public relations. When considering each index found that ranking from the top 5 average points are 1) food 2) accommodation 3) tour programs 4) hospitality of the host and members 5) culture, respectively. It can be seen that the members of the group have been involved in the development of Saphan hin homestays by applying knowledge from the classroom and seeking help from various external organizations in order to create homestay development to Thai Homestay Standards that will be able to increasingly attract tourists to stay and travel in Ban Non Sawan, where people in the community will have extra income and the community enterprise will grow in business and has profit, increasingly.