A Chinese Guidebook Creation for Durian Orchardists to Promote Tourism and Sale of Volcanic Durian in Sisaket Province

Abstract

The research of “A Chinese Guidebook Creation for Durian Orchardists to Promote Tourism and Sale of Volcanic Durian in Sisaket Province” aimed to 1) study the use of Chinese language of volcanic durian orchardists in Sisaket Province to communicate with Chinese tourists, and 2) create a Chinese guidebook for durian orchardists to promote tourism and sale of volcanic durian in Sisaket Province. The samples used in this research were volcanic durian farmers certified with GI standard in Khun Han District, Kantharalak District, and Srirattana District of Sisaket Province. A total of 6 orchards was selected by purposive sampling method consisted of 2 orchards from each district. The instrument used in this research was                     a questionnaire divided into 2 parts: 1) the condition of volcanic durian orchardists, and 2) the demand of a Chinese guidebook for communicating with Chinese customers linking to                5 Chinese aspects: 1) knowledge of Mandarin, 2) listening to Mandarin, 3) speaking Mandarin, 4) reading Mandarin, and 5) writing Mandarin, based on five rating scale of Likert as criteria. The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, and standard deviation of the target group.

          The findings revealed that the volcanic durian orchardists in Sisaket Province need         a Chinese guidebook for communication to sell durians to Chinese at the highest level of 83.33%.The three most wanted skills were: 1) listening to Mandarin, 2) speaking Mandarin, and               3) reading Mandarin. They required a simple format of Chinese guidebook focusing on listening, speaking, and reading skills based on a basic knowledge toward sentences of basic sale together with Thai subtitle.

          The guidebook was created based on the findings that the researcher got from the study on demand of a Chinese guidebook of the volcanic durian orchardists. The content is divided into 5 aspects: 1) names of durian species, 2) taste and level of ripeness, 3) numbers, 4) quantifying nouns and weight unit, and 5) sentences used in sale for durian seller. It consists of Thai vocabularies, Chinese vocabularies, Pinyin, Thai subtitles, and illustrations, which are easy to use in order to meet the needs of the target group and the durian orchardists to be able to study and use on their own.