COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT OF TOURIST GUIDES FOR SPORTS TOURISM SERVICES IN THE CENTRAL REGION
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Abstract
The purpose of this research was to explore the competency components of tour guides for sports tourism services in the central region and to propose guidelines for the development of tour guide competencies for supporting sports tourism services in the central region. The study used a mixed research methodology. The samples were classified into two groups: 1) the samples for an interview and focus group consisted of 10 guides with knowledge and experience in sports tourism and purposive sampling was used. Semi - structured interviews were used as research tools. And 2) The samples for a survey comprised 400 guides who have received a tour guide license from the Department of Tourism in the central region. The questionnaire was used as the research instrument. The tool quality was tested by determining the Index of Item Objective Congruence (IOC), getting the IOC from 0.66 to 1.00. Using the alpha coefficient to determine the questionnaire's reliability, the confidence value was 0.865.
Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data and analysis of the competency factors for tour guides. The Maximum Likelihood (ML) technique was used to evaluate consistency. The relative chi - square (Chi - square/df), the relative consistency index (NFI), and the comparative consistency index were the three main statistics used to confirm the consistency of indicators with empirical data (CFI), and values for the RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation).
The study made the following significant discoveries: 1) the component weights of tour guides for supporting sports tourist services in the central region were found to be all positive and statistically significant at the.01 levels for all items, which was a significant finding. Knowledge competency (KL), which had a standard weight of 0.99, came in first, followed by character competency (AB), which had a standard weight of 0.91. The standard component weight for Skilled Performance (SK) is 0.90. and 2) Guidelines for the development of tour guide competencies for supporting tourism services in the central region: 2.1) promote knowledge of sports tourism services; 2.2) Improve tour guide role characteristics, and 2.3) Improve tour guide attitudes.
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The published article is a copyright of the Academic Journal of Thailand National Sports University. The passage appeared in each article in this academic journal is a perspective of each author which is not related to the journal. Each author is required to be responsible for all components of his/her own article. If there are any mistakes, each author must be responsible for those mistakes on his/her own.
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