A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS FOR COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM ENTERPRISES IN SERVICE COMPETENCY

Abstract

The objectives of this study are 1) to analyze the path of causal relationship influencing the development of occupational standards for community-based tourism enterprises and 2) to examine the hypotheses of causal relationships of factors affecting the development of occupational standards for community-based tourism enterprises in service competency, Phatthalung Province, Thailand. The sample group consists of 220 community-based tourists visiting Phatthalung Province, Thailand. The sample were obtained with the 10-time sampling size of the variables.  The results showed that 1) the conceptual framework of causal relationship model, of factors affecting the development of occupational standards for community-based tourism enterprises in service competency, Phatthalung Province, Thailand. consisted of only three variables; the tourist attitudes towards external factors, tourist behavior and their attitudes towards tourism factors. Additionally, there were six variables influencing marketing potential in added-value creation for products and services; economy, environment, marketing promotion, process, destination attractiveness and access to tourist attractions, and. 2) the hypothesis format was consistent with the empirical data based on Chi-square = 436.373 Chi-square / df = 2.039 df = 214 p-value = .051 GFI = .914 RMSEA = .002, through evaluating the Data-Model Fit. The ρ-Value was applied for verification of the consistency of the empirical model and  the theoretical model with statistical significance value of p > .05.