A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE HEALTH TOURISM POTENTIAL FOR COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM IN CHIANG RAI AND NAN PROVINCES : IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW NORMAL FOR TOURISM

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the potential for community-based health tourism through an analysis of service quality and Safety and Health Administration Standards (SHA) for health tourism development in the Chiang Rai and Nan provinces. This investigation was important to ensure that levels of service quality and SHA standards are appropriate to meet recent trends toward a new normal in tourism. This investigation employed a quantitative approach. Data was collected through a questionnaire using purposive sampling. The survey of 408 tourists who traveled to the Chiang Rai and Nan provinces revealed that the level of tourists' demand for community-based health tourism services that meet the SHA safety standards of Chiang Rai and Nan provinces was at a high level. The result showed that tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy are in the high level with 91.2 percent, 89.7 percent, 90.07 percent, 85.3 percent, and 85.3 percent respectively. However, in the service quality in responsiveness, reliability, and empathy with 0.5 percent, 1.0 percent and 2.0 should be improved. Therefore, this was mainly a suggestion to improve the health tourism providers in the quality service dimension focusing on Empathy and Responsiveness. Also, the SHA certified process which would assist in the promotion of health tourism in the community and created confidence in tourists for the new normal tourism.