Endogenous and Exogenous Factors for E- Marketing Technology and Innovation in Homestay Establishments: A Case Study of Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand

7/21/2019 Endogenous and Exogenous Factors for E- Marketing Technology and Innovation in Homestay Establishments: A Case Study of Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand

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Endogenous and Exogenous Factors

for E- Marketing Technology and Innovation

in Homestay Establishments:

Ms. Siripen Yiamjanya

Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU)

IEDRC AMSTERDAM CONFERENCE PROGRAM,

February 12-13, 2015

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Zaandam

A Case Study of Samut Songkhram

Province, Thailand



ResearchBackground

Low visibility of local homestay



The usage of Internet by

local homestay

entrepreneurs in the

business

Investigation of endogenous and

exogenous factors that facilitated

an adoption of e-marketing in

homestay business

Low visibility of local homestay

Misunderstanding of homestay tourism concept

Homestay keyword exploited over the Internet by resortand hotel business



Research

Objectives



I:

To explore the usage of the electronicchannel by local homestay entrepreneurs inBang Khonthee District, Samut SongkramProvince

II:

To investigate endogenous and exogenousfactors that facilitated an adoption ofe-marketing in their homestay business.



LiteratureReview



Internet searches in Google.co.th by use of Thai language for “homestay

samut songkram” produced 316,000 results, and 226,000 results for“homestay bang khonthee”. Most were small resorts, not homestay, and

travel information.

Most websites in the search result list included:

Social media site

Portal sites and destination sites for homestay listings that link to

particular homestay business domains

Travel intermediaries

Google Plus and Google Adwords (a few)

Websites of governmental organizations (e.g. Tourism Authority of

Thailand) (a few).

Homestay having their own websites (with their own domain name) had

low ability in competing on the Internet- based environment (not in the

first page).

Internet Review



Previous studies of determinant factors in adopting Internet

marketing in small business:

• The level of star grading

• Technological competence

• Managerial support

• Existence of alliances

• Property size

Organizationalfactors

• Perceived benefits

• Internet usage in daily business operations (efficiency andconvenience of the Internet as communication tool)

• The level of ICT and relevant knowledge and skills

Individualfactors

• Environmental competition

• The industry trends

• Pressure from customers and the industry

• Expectations from customers and the industry

Environmentalfactors







Research

Methodology



• Bang Khonthee District, Samut

Songkram Province, ThailandSite

• 35 Local entrepreneurs who run

the homestay establishment inBang Khonthee District, SamutSongkram Province

Sample

• Questionnaire (with interview) with five-

point Likert-type scale from the mostimportant to the least important used forinvestigating significant factors thatfacilitated an adoption of e-marketing inhomestay business

Data CollectingTool







ResearchFindings



EntrepreneurBackground

60% as first generation

34.3% opened their houses ashomestay establishment for 3-4

years

34.3% used the Internet forcommunicating with customers at a

medium level

Use of the Internet

82.9% used the Internet indaily life

62.9% used the Internet inmarketing and public relationfor their homestay business



The five most prominentpurposes of the Internet usage

Searching for generalinformation

Searching for news update

Searching for tourism and homestayrelated information

For socializing in the social media

sites

For entertainment

Lessprominent

Updating content ontheir websites

Keeping contact withcustomers



Intention to attend e-marketing

trainings

49.9% indicated their interest, yet could not dodue to an inconvenience of time

25.7% showed no interest



Findings of the investigation of

endogenous and exogenous factors that

facilitated the homestay

establishments’ adoption of

e-marketing











Discussion



Utilization of theirown website

Website was not used as themain marketing and

communication channel

Rather based on phone call

Most websites lacked of regular

update (static) and with lowoptimization as created byfreelance webmaster

Utilization of social mediasites in advertising the

business

Significant role ofFacebook.com

Significant role of Thai socialnetwork sites such as

Sanook.com and Pantip.com

The role involved self-

presentation and self-marketing and the number of

‘likes’ clicks



Homestay businesswas not their main

source of income

Main source of incomewas agricultural unit

No necessity in hiring aspecific person to take

care of the website

Homestay businessenvironment

Low level of promotional activities due to booming trend at the destination

especially domestic market

Still low level of competitive environmentresulting in the low pressure of the

entrepreneurs

Increase of business competitiveenvironment would affect the entrepreneurs’

perception of competitive pressure andmovement towards the adoption of the

Internet marketing



The geographical andphysical attributes of thehomestay establishments

The location in proximityto famous tourist

attractions

Attractiveness anduniqueness of homestay

decoration

Strong attachment of touristswith tourism accessibility and

aesthetics

Response of homestayentrepreneurs to clients

Decoration of homestayestablishments served clients’

behaviour – taking photos and postingon social media sites, with telling the

experience

Significant advantages in creatingviral and social marketing

environment through social mediasites

Utilization ofsocial media sites







Co-operative establishment andlearning other homestays’

experiences

Less significant due to secondarysource of income

Individual homestay operation rather thanthe coordination for community tourism

benefit

The remarkable transition of homestay being only asgeneral accommodation servicing tourists with a less

of a connection with cultural attributes andcommunity as a whole



Suggestions



Suggestions

Tourism Authority of Thailand and other publicorganizations should be more strategic in providinge-marketing trainings, with facilitation of websitedevelopment and utilization through optimization

technique

Looking more on developing quality content of homestay anduser-friendly homestay classification, search-ability, link-ability

to websites of homestay establishments

Aware of distortion of homestay concept caused by the

massification of resorts that utilized homestay keywords fortheir e- marketing

Aware of the situation that the authenticity of homestaymight be devalued





Limitation of this research and future study

The small sample size due to the time constraint Limited published literature on the adoption of e-marketing on

the homestay sector

Future research

Considering a larger proportion of data collection in the same district or

province.

Due to significance of social media sites in homestay marketing within

the Thai context, future research may explore how and how much

actively these social media sites are utilized by local homestayestabl ishments as well as its effectiveness .

Qualitative approach should be applied.



Thank you

Documents

Endogenous and Exogenous Factors for E- Marketing Technology and Innovation in Homestay Establishments: A Case Study of Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand