Abstract:
This research aimed to study the guidelines for promoting Staycation for Thai Millennials tourists in the COVID-19 pandemic to the Next Normal at Bangkok. This study was designed as mixed methods research. It comprised quantitative research focusing on 385 Thai Millennials by using research tool as questionnaire and qualitative research depending on 5 key informants and using research tool as interview forms together with Content Analysis.
1. The COVID-19 pandemic led to decreasing numbers of foreign:main tourism that impacting to tourism and hospitality industry: therefore, the entrepreneurs had to adapt with mixture of strategies to attract Thai travelers. Staycation will be recovering economy and tourism in future and made the new experience for tourism.
2. As for the behaviors and demands of Thai Millennials Staycation, it was found that most travelers never Staycation but interesting to relax by spending one night during the weekend. Meanwhile, these tourists preferred to use private vehicles the most, and their favorite activities were photographing and shooting video. It also appeared that these travelers require for convenience the most (×= 4.38, S.D. = 0.52) whereas the Marketing Mix 4Cs these travelers demanded the most was service convenience (×= 4.55, S.D. = 0.51)
3. The guidelines for promoting Staycation can be concluded as follows. 1) Attraction: it is necessary to design accommodation as private places with beauty and identity as well as to have special promotion. 2) Activities: it is important to have several activities with hygiene and cooperate with local community. 3) Access: it is crucial to provide enough parking lots for travelers, together with a guide to accommodation as well as shuttle bus taking a public transport. 4) Amenities: it is vital to install inclusive amenities and develop IT system. 5) Accommodation: it is a necessity to prepare enough spaces and the accommodation should have global standard. 6) Customer demands: hotels should be clean and suitable for respite, together with all-inclusive amenities.7) Cost: the accommodation itself must match advertising as claimed, the places must be easily accessible, and accommodation needs to prepare full services. 8) Convenience: the strategy and services should be adjusted, and the hospitality services must have standard. 9) Communication: it is important to have several communication channels on social media aside from promoting of Staycation increasingly.