The Guidelines for Crisis Communication Management to Promote Tourism in Thailand amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The research study on “Guidelines for Crisis Communication Management to Promote Tourism in Thailand amid the COVID-19 Pandemic,” had the following objectives: 1) to investigate crisis communication management to promote tourism in Thailand in times of  the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) to study problems and obstacles of crisis communication management to promote tourism in Thailand amid the COVID-19 pandemic; and 3) to find suitable guidelines for crisis communication management  amid the so called crises. This was qualitative research using in-depth interview and purposive sampling techniques. The population consisted of groups of administrative and operational personnel from the Department of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and the Tourism Industry Council of Thailand. Key informants were eight officials from those organizations, whose mission and vision were to promote tourism in Thailand.

The following results were found:

1. Crisis communication management should cover the followings: 1) a planned campaign to assist 

tourism business entrepreneurs  to improve the quality of their services until  they are accord with the Hygiene Safety Standard(SHA) to ensure the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 at tourist attraction spots; 2) SHA measures and policy should be specified by people and local administrative organizations; 3) a plan to publicize vaccination campaign against Coronavirus to increase the number of people with the so called virus immunity in order to set a plan to re-open the country; and 3) the government sector should reveal information, patterns, methods  and practical guidelines leading to problem solving  amid COVID-19 crisis  by government and private sectors together with people in general.

1. Management of tourism business in Thailand amid COVID-19 crises involved the followings:1) sectors concerned both government and private ones alike work together with an integration manner; 2) in an aspect of the policy, the work was divided up clearly among them; and 3) in an aspect of communications, war room meetings were set up for the gatherings of representatives from agencies related to tourism business, strategic communications concerning the spread of coronavirus came through both digital media and personal ones via channels or networks provided by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Tourism Offices and village health volunteers/ VHV.
2. Problems and obstacles in crisis communication management to promote travel in Thailand amid the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) tourism campaigns in the past did not give priority to groups of Thai tourists, resulted in an imbalance number of domestic tourists and their overseas counterparts until it had negative effect on Thai economy as a whole; 2) the rate of unemployment was considerably high; 3) tourism business operators lacked financial liquidation; 4) inadequate facilities  to prevent the spread of the epidemic at tourist attraction spots; 5) the lack of readiness for cooperation among various organizations; 6) the lack of confidence in the standardized  control  to prevent the spread of the disease  at tourist attraction spots; 7) local people did not cooperate adequately  to  control the spread of COVID-19 at those places.
3. Recommendations for crisis communication management to promote travel in Thailand should cover the followings: 1) the government sector should fix policies and measures in accord with the Hygiene Safety Standard (SHA); 2) personnel’ s potential should be improved so that they become knowledgeable in terms of the Hygiene Safety Standard (SHA); 3) communication channels should be expanded more by making use of the online media.

Keywords: crisis communication management, COVID-19, Tourism Business Management, Thailand