Search results for: Muay Thai sport tourism
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1852

Search results for: Muay Thai sport tourism

742 Effect of High-Intensity Core Muscle Exercises Training on Sport Performance in Dancers

Authors: Che Hsiu Chen, Su Yun Chen, Hon Wen Cheng

Abstract:

Traditional core stability, core endurance, and balance exercises on a stable surface with isometric muscle actions, low loads, and multiple repetitions, which may not improvements the swimming and running economy performance. However, the effects of high intensity core muscle exercise training on jump height, sprint, and aerobic fitness remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine whether high intensity core muscle exercises training could improve sport performances in dancers. Thirty healthy university dancer students (28 women and 2 men; age 20.0 years, height 159.4 cm, body mass 52.7 kg) were voluntarily participated in this study, and each participant underwent five suspension exercises (e.g., hip abduction in plank alternative, hamstring curl, 45-degree row, lunge and oblique crunch). Each type of exercise was performed for 30-second, with 30-second of rest between exercises, two times per week for eight weeks and each exercise session was increased by 10-second every week. We measured agility, explosive force, anaerobic and cardiovascular fitness in dancer performance before and after eight weeks of training. The results showed that the 8-week high intensity core muscle training would significantly increase T-test agility (7.78%), explosive force of acceleration (3.35%), vertical jump height (8.10%), jump power (6.95%), lower extremity anaerobic ability (7.10%) and oxygen uptake efficiency slope (4.15%). Therefore, it can be concluded that eight weeks of high intensity core muscle exercises training can improve not only agility, sprint ability, vertical jump ability, anaerobic and but also cardiovascular fitness measures as well.

Keywords: balance, jump height, sprint, maximal oxygen uptake

Procedia PDF Downloads 407
741 Water Quality and Coastal Management Profile Assessment of Puerto Galera Bay, Philippines

Authors: Ma. Manna Farrel B. Pinto

Abstract:

As global industrialization progresses, the environment remains to be at risk of disturbances brought by developments of cities and communities. Impacts of flourishing industries such as tourism require rapid growth of establishments and may threaten ecosystems and natural resources. Puerto Galera as a biosphere reserve and declared as the Center of the World’s Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity is on the brink of ecological deterioration as tourism further develops in its coastal areas. Apparently, attempts were initiated to establish a baseline for designation of protection in the economic and coastal marine zones of Puerto Galera but continuity of its implementation and coordination of concerned units remains deficient. Indications of eutrophication have been observed based on water quality analysis although parameter values still comply with the national standards for coastal waters. Water quality data, biodiversity and hydrodynamic information, gathered from studies, and local government units were analysed to assess the condition of the coast as well as acting policies implemented by the local authorities. Sources of contaminants were also located in its three main communities, and their shores wherein in recommendations for installing wastewater treatment facilities and further improvement of policies of waste discharge must be addressed. With a conceptual framework proposed in the study, a comprehensive data analysis and coordinated management are necessary to form an integrated coastal management for further protection and preservation of the sustainable coastal marine ecosystem of Puerto Galera.

Keywords: coastal management, environmental management, integrated resource management, Puerto Galera

Procedia PDF Downloads 267
740 Characteristic Matrix Faults for Flight Control System

Authors: Thanh Nga Thai

Abstract:

A major issue in air transportation is in flight safety. Recent developments in control engineering have an attractive potential for resolving new issues related to guidance, navigation, and control of flying vehicles. Many future atmospheric missions will require increased on board autonomy including fault diagnosis and the subsequent control and guidance recovery actions. To improve designing system diagnostic, an efficient FDI- fault detection and identification- methodology is necessary to achieve. Contribute to characteristic of different faults in sensor and actuator in the view of mathematics brings a lot of profit in some condition changes in the system. This research finds some profit to reduce a trade-off to achieve between fault detection and performance of the closed loop system and cost and calculated in simulation.

Keywords: fault detection and identification, sensor faults, actuator faults, flight control system

Procedia PDF Downloads 422
739 Generating Product Description with Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 2

Authors: Minh-Thuan Nguyen, Phuong-Thai Nguyen, Van-Vinh Nguyen, Quang-Minh Nguyen

Abstract:

Research on automatically generating descriptions for e-commerce products is gaining increasing attention in recent years. However, the generated descriptions of their systems are often less informative and attractive because of lacking training datasets or the limitation of these approaches, which often use templates or statistical methods. In this paper, we explore a method to generate production descriptions by using the GPT-2 model. In addition, we apply text paraphrasing and task-adaptive pretraining techniques to improve the qualify of descriptions generated from the GPT-2 model. Experiment results show that our models outperform the baseline model through automatic evaluation and human evaluation. Especially, our methods achieve a promising result not only on the seen test set but also in the unseen test set.

Keywords: GPT-2, product description, transformer, task-adaptive, language model, pretraining

Procedia PDF Downloads 197
738 A Longitudinal Study to Develop an Emotional Design Framework for Physical Activity Interventions

Authors: Stephanie Hewitt, Leila Sheldrick, Weston Baxter

Abstract:

Multidisciplinary by nature, design research brings together varying research fields to answer globally significant questions. Emotional design, a field which helps us create products that influence people’s behaviour, and sports psychology, containing a growing field of recent research which focuses on understanding the emotions experienced through sport and the effects this has on our health and wellbeing, are two research fields that can be combined through design research to tackle global physical inactivity. The combination of these research fields presents an opportunity to build new tools and methods that could help designers create new interventions to promote positive behaviour change in the form of physical activity uptake, ultimately improving people’s health and wellbeing. This paper proposes a framework that can be used to develop new products and services that focus on not only improving the uptake and upkeep of physical activity but also helping people have a healthy emotional relationship with exercise. To develop this framework, a set of comprehensive maps exploring the relationship between human emotions and physical activity across a range of factors was created. These maps were then further evolved through in-depth interviews, which analysed the reasons behind the emotions felt, how physical activity fits into the daily routine and how important regular exercise is to people. Finally, to progress these findings into a design framework, a longitudinal study was carried out to explore further the emotional relationship people of varying sporting abilities have overtime with physical activity. This framework can be used to design more successful interventions that help people to not only become more active initially but implement long term changes to ensure they stay active.

Keywords: design research, emotional design, emotions, intervention, physical activity, sport psychology

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737 Phylogenetic Characterization of Atrazine-Degrading Bacteria Isolated from Agricultural Soil in Eastern Thailand

Authors: Sawangjit Sopid

Abstract:

In this study sugarcane field soils with a long history of atrazine application in Chachoengsao and Chonburi provinces have been explored for their potential of atrazine biodegradation. For the atrazine degrading bacteria isolation, the soils used in this study named ACS and ACB were inoculated in MS-medium containing atrazine. Six short rod and gram-negative bacterial isolates, which were able to use this herbicide as a sole source of nitrogen, were isolated and named as ACS1, ACB1, ACB3, ACB4, ACB5 and ACB6. From the 16S rDNA nucleotide sequence analysis, the isolated bacteria ACS1 and ACB4 were identified as Rhizobium sp. with 89.1-98.7% nucleotide identity, ACB1 and ACB5 were identified as Stenotrophomonas sp. with 91.0-92.8% nucleotide identity, whereas ACB3 and ACB6 were Klebsiella sp. with 97.4-97.8% nucleotide identity.

Keywords: atrazine-degrading bacteria, bioremediation, Thai isolates, bacteria

Procedia PDF Downloads 888
736 Emotional Intelligence and Sports Coaches

Authors: Stephens Oluyemi Adetunji, Nel Norma Margaret, Krogs Sozein

Abstract:

There has been a shift in the role of sports from being a form of entertainment and relaxation to becoming a huge business concern and high money spinning venture. This shift has placed a greater demand on sport coaches as regards expectations for high performance from investors as well as other stake holders. The responsibility of sports coaches in ensuring high performance of sports men and women has become increasingly more demanding from both spectators and sports organisers. Coaches are leaders who should possess soft skills such as emotional intelligence aside from employing skills and drills to ensure high performance of athletes. This study is, therefore, designed to determine the emotional intelligence of sports coaches in South Africa. An assessment of the emotional intelligence of sports coaches would enable the researchers to identify those who have low emotional intelligence and to design an intervention program that could improve their emotional intelligence. This study will adopt the pragmatic world view of research using the mixed methods research design of the quantitative and qualitative approach. The non-probability sampling technique will be used to select fifty sports coaches for the quantitative study while fifteen sports coaches will be purposively selected for the qualitative study. One research question which seeks to ascertain the level of emotional intelligence of sports coaches will be raised to guide this study. In addition, two research hypotheses stating that there will be no significant difference in the level of emotional intelligence of sports coaches on the basis of gender and type of sports will be formulated and statistically analysed at 0.05 level of significance. For the quantitative study, an emotional intelligence test will be used to measure the emotional intelligence of sport coaches. Focus group interviews and open ended questions will be used to obtain the qualitative data. Quantitative data obtained will be statistically analysed using the SPSS version 22.0 while the qualitative data will be analysed using atlas ti. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations will be made.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, high performance, sports coaches, South Africa

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735 Stakeholder Analysis of Agricultural Drone Policy: A Case Study of the Agricultural Drone Ecosystem of Thailand

Authors: Thanomsin Chakreeves, Atichat Preittigun, Ajchara Phu-ang

Abstract:

This paper presents a stakeholder analysis of agricultural drone policies that meet the government's goal of building an agricultural drone ecosystem in Thailand. Firstly, case studies from other countries are reviewed. The stakeholder analysis method and qualitative data from the interviews are then presented including data from the Institute of Innovation and Management, the Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council, agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers. Study and interview data are then employed to describe the current ecosystem and to guide the implementation of agricultural drone policies that are suitable for the ecosystem of Thailand. Finally, policy recommendations are then made that the Thai government should adopt in the future.

Keywords: drone public policy, drone ecosystem, policy development, agricultural drone

Procedia PDF Downloads 146
734 The Study of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University’s Image among People in Bangkok

Authors: Sawitree Suvanno

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to investigate the Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU) image among people in Bangkok. This study was conducted in the quantitative research and the questionnaires were used to collect data from 360 people of a sample group. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. The result showed that the SSRU’s image among people in Bangkok is in the “rather true” level of questionnaire scale in all aspects measured. The aspect that gains the utmost average is that the university is considered as royal-oriented and conservative; 2) the instructional supplies, buildings and venue promoting Thai art and tradition; 3) the moral and honest university administration; 4) the curriculum and the skillful students as well as graduates. Additional, people in Bangkok with different profession have the different view to the SSRU’s image at the significant level 0.05; there is no significant difference in gender, age and income.

Keywords: Bangkok, demographics, image, Suan Sunandha Rajabhpat University

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733 Inbound Tourists' Satisfaction from Their Visiting Bangkok, Thailand

Authors: Chisakan Papapankiad

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study the level of satisfaction from the perspective of inbound tourists who visited Bangkok, Thailand during January to March of 2014. While the independent variables included gender, age, levels of education, occupation, and income, the dependent variables were ten reasons for their visiting Thailand. A quota sampling method was utilized to get 200 respondents with 50 percent male and 50 percent female respondents. The majority of respondents were between 30-40 years old. Most were married and had an undergraduate degree. The average income of the respondents was between $30,000-50,000 per year. The findings revealed the ranking levels of satisfaction by highest mean to lowest mean as follows: Thai food and beverage, nature-beach-mountain, spa-massage-beauty, malls-shopping places, souvenir and handcraft, festivals and activities, tradition markets, museum-art-history, night entertainment, and conference-expo. In addition, the overall means is 4.19 with 0.790 SD.

Keywords: inbound tourists, satisfaction, visiting, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 384
732 Drivers and Barriers for Implementing Environmental Management in Beverage Processors: A Case of Thailand

Authors: Auttasuriyanan Pakpoom, Setthasakko Watchaneeporn

Abstract:

The main purpose of this study is to gain a clearer understanding of key determinants that drive environmental management and barriers that hinder its development. The study employs semi-structured interviews with key informants accompanied by site observations. Key informants include production, environmental and plant managers of six beverage companies, including three Thai and three multinational companies in Thailand. It is found that corporate image, government subsidies, top management leadership and education institutes are four primary factors influencing the implementation of environmental management in the beverage processors. No demand from Asian buyers, employee resistance to change and lack of environmental knowledge are identified as barriers.

Keywords: environmental management, beverage, government subsidies, education institutes, employee resistance, environmental knowledge, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 250
731 Enhancing a Competitive Advantage for Thailand’s IT Entrepreneurs

Authors: T. Niracharapa, W. Angkana

Abstract:

Since information and communication technology (ICT) plays a critical role in enhancing national competitiveness, it is a driving force for social and economic growth and prosperity. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will integrate this into ASEAN countries as a new mechanism and a measure that will improve economic performance as a global economy. Government policies may support or impede such harmonization. This study was to investigate, analyze the status of Thai IT entrepreneurs and define key strategies to enhance their competitive advantage. Data were collected based on in-depth interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, seminars and fieldwork on information technology excluding communication. SWOT was used as a tool to analyze the study. The results of this study can be used to enable the government to guide policy, measures and strategies for creating a competitive advantage for Thailand’s IT entrepreneurs in the global market.

Keywords: AEC, ASEAN, competitive advantage, IT entrepreneurs

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730 Transmitting Cultural Capital Through Local Products ‘Chanthaboon Reed Mat'

Authors: Maythaya Preeyanon

Abstract:

Chanthaburi Province is a province with people of many nationalities, such as Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Chong, and Khmer, resulting in a cultural mix in the past. What is a famous cultural transmission of Chanthaburi province is Chanthaburi reed mat weaving. Due to the suitability of both the climate and topography near the edge of the location, reeds have the qualities to be used to produce mats very well. There have been improvements in the methods of planting, dyeing, and weaving into various patterns that have been passed down as folk wisdom from generation to generation. Currently, there are brands of products belonging to the new generation that add creativity and add value through storytelling. Revive the value of reed mat products to increase in value until they can be exported to sell abroad. This research has therefore been conducted in order to decipher the success in transferring the Chanthaboon reed mat culture capital which has successfully advanced to being a creative economy so that it can be applied to other types of local wisdom or other local products.

Keywords: cultural capital, creative economy, communication, local product

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729 Evaluation and Possibilities of Valorization of Ecotourism Potentials in the Mbam and Djerem National Park

Authors: Rinyu Shei Mercy

Abstract:

Protected areas are the potential areas for the development of ecotourism because of their biodiversity, landscapes, waterfalls, lakes, caves, salt lick and cultural heritage of local or indigenous people. These potentials have not yet been valorized, so this study will enable to investigate the evaluation and possibilities of valorization of ecotourism potentials in the Mbam and Djerem National Park. Hence, this was done by employing a combination of field observations, examination, data collection and evaluation, using a SWOT analysis. The SWOT provides an analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and strategic suggestions for ecological planning. The study helps to determine an ecotouristic inventory and mapping of ecotourism potentials of the park, evaluate the degree of valorization of these potentials and the possibilities of valorization. Finally, the study has proven that the park has much natural potentials such as rivers, salt licks, waterfall and rapids, lakes, caves and rocks, etc. Also, from the study, it was realized that as concerns the degree of valorization of these ecotourism potentials, 50% of the population visit the salt lick of Pkayere because it’s a biodiversity hotspot and rich in mineral salt attracting a lot of animals and the least is the lake Miyere with 1% due to the fact that it is sacred. Moreover, from the results, there are possibilities that these potentials can be valorized and put into use because of their attractive nature such as creating good roads and bridges, good infrastructural facilities, good communication network etc. So, the study recommends that, in this process, MINTOUR, WCS, tour operators must interact sufficiently in order to develop the potential interest to ecotourism, ecocultural tourism and scientific tourism.

Keywords: ecotourism, national park Mbam and Djerem, valorization of biodiversity, protected areas of Cameroon

Procedia PDF Downloads 137
728 Revisiting Ecotourism Development Strategy of Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam: Considering Residents’ Perception and Attitudes

Authors: Bui Duc Sinh

Abstract:

Ecotourism in national parks seemed to be one of the options in the conservation of the natural resources and to improve the living condition of local communities. However, ecotourism development will be useless if it lacks the perception and support of local communities and appropriate ecotourism strategies. The aims of this study were to measure residents’ perception and satisfaction towards ecotourism impacts and their attitudes for ecotourism development in Cuc Phuong National Park; to assess the current ecotourism strategies based on ecotourism criteria and then to provide recommendations on ecotourism development strategies. The primary data were collected through personal observations, in-depth interviews with residents and national park staffs, and from surveys on households in all of the five communes in the Cuc Phuong National Park. The results depicted that local communities were aware of ecotourism impacts and had positive attitudes toward ecotourism development, and were satisfied of ecotourism development. However, higher perception rate was found on specific groups such as the young, the high income and educated, and those with jobs related to ecotourism. The study revealed the issues of concerns about the current ecotourism development strategies in Cuc Phuong National Park. The major hindrances for ecotourism development were lack of local participation and unattractive ecotourism services. It was also suggested that Cuc Phuong National Park should use ecotourism criteria to implement ecotourism activities sustainably and to harmonize the sharing of benefits amongst the stakeholders. The approaches proposed were to: create local employment through reengineering, improve the ecotourism quality, appropriate tourism benefits to the stakeholders, and carry out education and training programs. Furthermore, the results of the study helped tour operators and tourism promoters aware the real concerns, issues on current ecotourism activities in Cuc Phuong National Park.

Keywords: ecotourism, ecotourism impact, local community, national park

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727 The Quality of Business Relationships in the Tourism System: An Imaginary Organisation Approach

Authors: Armando Luis Vieira, Carlos Costa, Arthur Araújo

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The tourism system is viewable as a network of relationships amongst business partners where the success of each actor will ultimately be determined by the success of the whole network. Especially since the publication of Gümmesson’s (1996) ‘theory of imaginary organisations’, which suggests that organisational effectiveness largely depends on managing relationships and sharing resources and activities, relationship quality (RQ) has been increasingly recognised as a main source of value creation and competitive advantage. However, there is still ambiguity around this topic, and managers and researchers have been recurrently reporting the need to better understand and capitalise on the quality of interactions with business partners. This research aims at testing an RQ model from a relational, imaginary organisation’s approach. Two mail surveys provide the perceptions of 725 hotel representatives about their business relationships with tour operators, and 1,224 corporate client representatives about their business relationships with hotels (21.9 % and 38.8 % response rate, respectively). The analysis contributes to enhance our understanding on the linkages between RQ and its determinants, and identifies the role of their dimensions. Structural equation modelling results highlight trust as the dominant dimension, the crucial role of commitment and satisfaction, and suggest customer orientation as complementary building block. Findings also emphasise problem solving behaviour and selling orientation as the most relevant dimensions of customer orientation. The comparison of the two ‘dyads’ deepens the discussion and enriches the suggested theoretical and managerial guidelines concerning the contribution of quality relationships to business performance.

Keywords: corporate clients, destination competitiveness, hotels, relationship quality, structural equations modelling, tour operators

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726 The Active Social Live of #Lovewins: Understanding the Discourse of Homosexual Love and Rights in Thailand

Authors: Tinnaphop Sinsomboonthong

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The hashtag, #LoveWins, has been widely used for celebrating the victory of the LGBTQ movement since June 2015 when the US Supreme Court enacted the rights of same-sex marriage. Nowadays, the hashtag is generally used among active social media users in many countries, including Thailand. Amidst the political conflict between advocates of the junta-backed legislation related to same-sex marriage laws, known as ‘Thailand’s Civil Partnership Draft Bills,’ and its detractors, the hashtag becomes crucial for Thailand’s 2019 national election season and shortly afterward as it was one of the most crucial parts of a political campaign to rebrand many political parties’ image, create an LGBT-friendly atmosphere and neutralize the bi-polarized politics of the law. The use of the hashtag is, therefore, not just an online entertainment but a politico-discursive tool, used by many actors for many purposes. Behind the confrontation between supporters and opposers of the law, the hashtag is used by both sides to highlight the Western-centric normativity of homosexual love, closely associated with Eurocentric modernity and heteronormativity. As an online ethnographical study, this paper aims to analyze how #LoveWins is used among Thai social media users in late 2018 to mid-2019 and how it is signified by Thai social media users during the Drafted-Bills period and the 2019 national election. A number of preliminary surveys of data on Twitter were conducted in December 2018 and, more intensely, in January 2019. Later, the data survey was officially conducted twice during February and April 2019, while the data collection was done during May-June 2019. Only public posts on Twitter that include the hashtag, #LoveWins, or any hashtags quoting ‘love’ and ‘wins’ are the main targets of this research. As a result of this, the use of the hashtag can be categorized into three levels, including banal decoration, homosexual love celebration, and colonial discourse on homosexual love. Particularly in the third type of the use of the hashtag, discourse analysis is applied to reveal that this hashtag is closely associated with the discourse of development and modernity as most of the descriptive posts demonstrate aspirations to become more ‘developed and modernized’ like many Western countries and Taiwan, the LGBT capital in Asia. Thus, calls for the ‘right to homosexual love’ and the ‘right to same-sex marriage’ in Thailand are shaped and formulated within the discursive linkage between modernity, development, and love. Also, the use of #LoveWins can be considered as a de-queering process of love as only particular types of gender identity, sexual orientation, and relationships that reflect Eurocentric modernity and heteronormativity are acceptable and advocated. Due to this, more inclusive queer loves should be supported rather than a mere essentialist-traditionalist homosexual love. Homonormativity must be deconstructed, and love must no longer be reserved for only one particular type of relationship that is standardized from/by the West. It must become more inclusive.

Keywords: #LoveWins, homosexual love, LGBT rights, same-sex marriage

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725 Interactivity as a Predictor of Intent to Revisit Sports Apps

Authors: Young Ik Suh, Tywan G. Martin

Abstract:

Sports apps in a smartphone provide up-to-date information and fast and convenient access to live games. The market of sports apps has emerged as the second fastest growing app category worldwide. Further, many sports fans use their smartphones to know the schedule of sporting events, players’ position and bios, videos and highlights. In recent years, a growing number of scholars and practitioners alike have emphasized the importance of interactivity with sports apps, hypothesizing that interactivity plays a significant role in enticing sports apps users and that it is a key component in measuring the success of sports apps. Interactivity in sports apps focuses primarily on two functions: (1) two-way communication and (2) active user control, neither of which have been applicable through traditional mass media and communication technologies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine whether the interactivity function on sports apps leads to positive outcomes such as intent to revisit. More specifically, this study investigates how three major functions of interactivity (i.e., two-way communication, active user control, and real-time information) influence the attitude of sports apps users and their intent to revisit the sports apps. The following hypothesis is proposed; interactivity functions will be positively associated with both attitudes toward sports apps and intent to revisit sports apps. The survey questionnaire includes four parts: (1) an interactivity scale, (2) an attitude scale, (3) a behavioral intention scale, and (4) demographic questions. Data are to be collected from ESPN apps users. To examine the relationships among the observed and latent variables and determine the reliability and validity of constructs, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is conducted. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is utilized to test hypothesized relationships among constructs. Additionally, this study compares the proposed interactivity model with a rival model to identify the role of attitude as a mediating factor. The findings of the current sports apps study provide several theoretical and practical contributions and implications by extending the research and literature associated with the important role of interactivity functions in sports apps and sports media consumption behavior. Specifically, this study may improve the theoretical understandings of whether the interactivity functions influence user attitudes and intent to revisit sports apps. Additionally, this study identifies which dimensions of interactivity are most important to sports apps users. From practitioners’ perspectives, this findings of this study provide significant implications. More entrepreneurs and investors in the sport industry need to recognize that high-resolution photos, live streams, and up-to-date stats are in the sports app, right at sports fans fingertips. The result will imply that sport practitioners may need to develop sports mobile apps that offer greater interactivity functions to attract sport fans.

Keywords: interactivity, two-way communication, active user control, real time information, sports apps, attitude, intent to revisit

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724 Exploring the Relationship among Job Stress, Travel Constraints, and Job Satisfaction of the Employees in Casino Hotels: The Case of Macau

Authors: Tao Zhang

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Job stress appears nearly everywhere especially in the hospitality industry because employees in this industry usually have to work long time and try to meet conflicting demands of their customers, managers, and company. To reduce job stress, employees of casino hotels try to perform leisure activities or tourism. However, casino employees often meet many obstacles or constraints when they plan to travel. Until now, there is little understanding as to why casino hotel employees often face many travel constraints or leisure barriers. What is more, few studies explore the relationship between travel constraints and job stress of casino employees. Therefore, this study is to explore the construct of casino hotel employees' travel constraints and the relationship among job stress, travel constraints, and job satisfaction. Using convenient sampling method, this study planned to investigate 500 front line employees and managers of ten casino hotels in Macau. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed, and 414 valid questionnaires were received. The return rate of valid questionnaires is 82.8%. Several statistical techniques such as factor analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and regression analysis were applied to analyze the collected data. The findings of this study are as follows. Firstly, by using factor analysis, this study found the travel constraints of casino employees include intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints, and structural constraints. Secondly, by using regression analysis, the study found travel constraints are positively related with job stress while negatively related with job satisfaction. This means reducing travel constraints may create a chance for casino employees to travel so that they could reduce job stress, therefore raise their job satisfaction. Thirdly, this research divided the research samples into three groups by the degree of job stress. The three groups are low satisfaction group, medium satisfaction group, and high satisfaction group. The means values of these groups were compared by t-test. Results showed that there are significant differences of the means values of interpersonal constraints between low satisfaction group and high satisfaction group. This suggests positive interpersonal relationship especially good family member relationship reduce not only job stress but also travel constraints of casino employees. Interestingly, results of t-test showed there is not a significant difference of the means values of structural constraints between low satisfaction group and high satisfaction group. This suggests structural constraints are outside variables which may be related with tourism destination marketing. Destination marketing organizations (DMO) need use all kinds of tools and techniques to promote their tourism destinations so as to reduce structural constraints of casino employees. This research is significant for both theoretical and practical fields. From the theoretical perspective, the study found the internal relationship between travel constraints, job stress, and job satisfaction and the different roles of three dimensions of travel constraints. From the practical perspective, the study provides useful methods to reduce travel constraints and job stress, therefore, raise job satisfaction of casino employees.

Keywords: hotel, job satisfaction, job stress, travel constraints

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723 Sustainability Communications Across Multi-Stakeholder Groups: A Critical Review of the Findings from the Hospitality and Tourism Sectors

Authors: Frederica Pettit

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Contribution: Stakeholder involvement in CSR is essential to ensuring pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours across multi-stakeholder groups. Despite increased awareness of the benefits surrounding a collaborative approach to sustainability communications, its success is limited by difficulties engaging with active online conversations with stakeholder groups. Whilst previous research defines the effectiveness of sustainability communications; this paper contributes to knowledge through the development of a theoretical framework that explores the processes to achieving pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours in stakeholder groups. The research will also consider social media as an opportunity to communicate CSR information to all stakeholder groups. Approach: A systematic review was chosen to investigate the effectiveness of the types of sustainability communications used in the hospitality and tourism industries. The systematic review was completed using Web of Science and Scopus using the search terms “sustainab* communicat*” “effective or effectiveness,” and “hospitality or tourism,” limiting the results to peer-reviewed research. 133 abstracts were initially read, with articles being excluded for irrelevance, duplicated articles, non-empirical studies, and language. A total of 45 papers were included as part of the systematic review. 5 propositions were created based on the results of the systematic review, helping to develop a theoretical framework of the processes needed for companies to encourage pro-environmental behaviours across multi-stakeholder groups. Results: The theoretical framework developed in the paper determined the processes necessary for companies to achieve pro-environmental behaviours in stakeholders. The processes to achieving pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours are stakeholder-focused, identifying the need for communications to be specific to their targeted audience. Collaborative communications that enable stakeholders to engage with CSR information and provide feedback lead to a higher awareness of CSR shared visions and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. These processes should also aim to improve their relationships with stakeholders through transparency of CSR, CSR strategies that match stakeholder values and ethics whilst prioritizing sustainability as part of their job role. Alternatively, companies can prioritize pro-environmental behaviours using choice editing by mainstreaming sustainability as the only option. In recent years, there has been extensive research on social media as a viable source of sustainability communications, with benefits including direct interactions with stakeholders, the ability to enforce the authenticity of CSR activities and encouragement of pro-environmental behaviours. Despite this, there are challenges to implementing CSR, including difficulties controlling stakeholder criticisms, negative stakeholder influences and comments left on social media platforms. Conclusion: A lack of engagement with CSR information is a reoccurring reason for preventing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours across stakeholder groups. Traditional CSR strategies contribute to this due to their inability to engage with their intended audience. Hospitality and tourism companies are improving stakeholder relationships through collaborative processes which reduce single-use plastic consumption. A collaborative approach to communications can lead to stakeholder satisfaction, leading to changes in attitudes and behaviours. Different sources of communications are accessed by different stakeholder groups, identifying the need for targeted sustainability messaging, creating benefits such as direct interactions with stakeholders, the ability to enforce the authenticity of CSR activities, and encouraging engagement with sustainability information.

Keywords: hospitality, pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, sustainability communication, social media

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722 Challenges and Solutions to Human Capital Development in Thailand

Authors: Nhabhat Chaimongkol

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Human capital is one of the factors that are vital for economic growth. This is especially true as humans will face increasingly more forms of disruptive technology in the near future. Therefore, there is a need to develop human capital in order to overcome the current uncertainty in the global economy and the future of jobs. In recent years, Thailand has increasingly devoted more attention to developing its human capital. The Thai government has raised this issue in its national agenda, which is part of its 20-year national strategy. Currently, there are multiple challenges and solutions regarding this issue. This study aims to find out what are the challenges and solutions to human capital development in Thailand. The research in this study uses mixed methods consisting of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The results show that while Thailand has many plans to develop human capital, it is still lacking the necessary actions and integrations that are required to achieve its goals. Finally, the challenges and solutions will be discussed in detail.

Keywords: challenges, human capital, solutions, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 172
721 The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Autism Attitude and Skills

Authors: Sara Fayez Fawzy Mikhael

Abstract:

Inclusive education services for students with autism are still developing in Thailand. Although many more children with intellectual disabilities have been attending school since the Thai government enacted the Education for Persons with Disabilities Act in 2008, facilities for students with disabilities and their families are generally inadequate. This comprehensive study used the Attitudes and Preparedness for Teaching Students with Autism Scale (APTSAS) to examine the attitudes and preparedness of 110, elementary teachers in teaching students with autism in the general education setting. Descriptive statistical analyzes showed that the most important factor in the formation of a negative image of teachers with autism is student attitudes. Most teachers also stated that their pre-service training did not prepare them to meet the needs of children with special needs who cannot speak. The study is important and provides directions for improving non-formal teacher education in Thailand.

Keywords: attitude, autism, teachers, thailandsports activates, movement skills, motor skills

Procedia PDF Downloads 63
720 Application of Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey in Thailand

Authors: Sathapath Kilaso

Abstract:

Nowadays, Today, wireless sensor networks are an important technology that works with Internet of Things. It is receiving various data from many sensor. Then sent to processing or storing. By wireless network or through the Internet. The devices around us are intelligent, can receiving/transmitting and processing data and communicating through the system. There are many applications of wireless sensor networks, such as smart city, smart farm, environmental management, weather. This article will explore the use of wireless sensor networks in Thailand and collect data from Thai Thesis database in 2012-2017. How to Implementing Wireless Sensor Network Technology. Advantage from this study To know the usage wireless technology in many fields. This will be beneficial for future research. In this study was found the most widely used wireless sensor network in agriculture field. Especially for smart farms. And the second is the adoption of the environment. Such as weather stations and water inspection.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, smart city, survey, Adhoc Network

Procedia PDF Downloads 207
719 Muscle: The Tactile Texture Designed for the Blind

Authors: Chantana Insra

Abstract:

The research objective focuses on creating a prototype media of the tactile texture of muscles for educational institutes to help visually impaired students learn massage extra learning materials further than the ordinary curriculum. This media is designed as an extra learning material. The population in this study was 30 blinded students between 4th - 6th grades who were able to read Braille language. The research was conducted during the second semester in 2012 at The Bangkok School for the Blind. The method in choosing the population in the study was purposive sampling. The methodology of the research includes collecting data related to visually impaired people, the production of the tactile texture media, human anatomy and Thai traditional massage from literature reviews and field studies. This information was used for analyzing and designing 14 tactile texture pictures presented to experts to evaluate and test the media.

Keywords: blind, tactile texture, muscle, visual arts and design

Procedia PDF Downloads 269
718 Generation-Based Travel Decision Analysis in the Post-Pandemic Era

Authors: Hsuan Yu Lai, Hsuan Hsuan Chang

Abstract:

The consumer decision process steps through problems by weighing evidence, examining alternatives, and choosing a decision path. Currently, the COVID 19 made the tourism industry encounter a huge challenge and suffer the biggest amount of economic loss. It would be very important to reexamine the decision-making process model, especially after the pandemic, and consider the differences among different generations. The tourism industry has been significantly impacted by the global outbreak of COVID-19, but as the pandemic subsides, the sector is recovering. This study addresses the scarcity of research on travel decision-making patterns among generations in Taiwan. Specifically targeting individuals who frequently traveled abroad before the pandemic, the study explores differences in decision-making at different stages post-outbreak. So this study investigates differences in travel decision-making among individuals from different generations during/after the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the moderating effects of social media usage and individuals' perception of health risks. The study hypotheses are “there are significant differences in the decision-making process including travel motivation, information searching preferences, and criteria for decision-making” and that social-media usage and health-risk perception would moderate the results of the previous study hypothesis. The X, Y, and Z generations are defined and categorized based on a literature review. The survey collected data including their social-economic background, travel behaviors, motivations, considerations for destinations, travel information searching preferences, and decision-making criteria before/after the pandemic based on the reviews of previous studies. Data from 656 online questionnaires were collected between January to May 2023 and from Taiwanese travel consumers who used to travel at least one time abroad before Covid-19. SPSS is used to analyze the data with One-Way ANOVA and Two-Way ANOVA. The analysis includes demand perception, information gathering, alternative comparison, purchase behavior, and post-travel experience sharing. Social media influence and perception of health risks are examined as moderating factors. The findings show that before the pandemic, the Y Generation preferred natural environments, while the X Generation favored historical and cultural sites compared to the Z Generation. However, after the outbreak, the Z Generation displayed a significant preference for entertainment activities. This study contributes to understanding changes in travel decision-making patterns following COVID-19 and the influence of social media and health risks. The findings have practical implications for the tourism industry.

Keywords: consumer decision-making, generation study, health risk perception, post-pandemic era, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 60
717 Heritage, Cultural Events and Promises for Better Future: Media Strategies for Attracting Tourism during the Arab Spring Uprisings

Authors: Eli Avraham

Abstract:

The Arab Spring was widely covered in the global media and the number of Western tourists traveling to the area began to fall. The goal of this study was to analyze which media strategies marketers in Middle Eastern countries chose to employ in their attempts to repair the negative image of the area in the wake of the Arab Spring. Several studies were published concerning image-restoration strategies of destinations during crises around the globe; however, these strategies were not part of an overarching theory, conceptual framework or model from the fields of crisis communication and image repair. The conceptual framework used in the current study was the ‘multi-step model for altering place image’, which offers three types of strategies: source, message and audience. Three research questions were used: 1.What public relations crisis techniques and advertising campaign components were used? 2. What media policies and relationships with the international media were adopted by Arab officials? 3. Which marketing initiatives (such as cultural and sports events) were promoted? This study is based on qualitative content analysis of four types of data: 1) advertising components (slogans, visuals and text); (2) press interviews with Middle Eastern officials and marketers; (3) official media policy adopted by government decision-maker (e.g. boycotting or arresting newspeople); and (4) marketing initiatives (e.g. organizing heritage festivals and cultural events). The data was located in three channels from December 2010, when the events started, to September 31, 2013: (1) Internet and video-sharing websites: YouTube and Middle Eastern countries' national tourism board websites; (2) News reports from two international media outlets, The New York Times and Ha’aretz; these are considered quality newspapers that focus on foreign news and tend to criticize institutions; (3) Global tourism news websites: eTurbo news and ‘Cities and countries branding’. Using the ‘multi-step model for altering place image,’ the analysis reveals that Middle Eastern marketers and officials used three kinds of strategies to repair their countries' negative image: 1. Source (cooperation and media relations; complying, threatening and blocking the media; and finding alternatives to the traditional media) 2. Message (ignoring, limiting, narrowing or reducing the scale of the crisis; acknowledging the negative effect of an event’s coverage and assuring a better future; promotion of multiple facets, exhibitions and softening the ‘hard’ image; hosting spotlight sporting and cultural events; spinning liabilities into assets; geographic dissociation from the Middle East region; ridicule the existing stereotype) and 3. Audience (changing the target audience by addressing others; emphasizing similarities and relevance to specific target audience). It appears that dealing with their image problems will continue to be a challenge for officials and marketers of Middle Eastern countries until the region stabilizes and its regional conflicts are resolved.

Keywords: Arab spring, cultural events, image repair, Middle East, tourism marketing

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716 The Intense Fascination of Ancient Egypt: A Cross-Cultural Phenomenological Study

Authors: Patrick Andrew McCoy

Abstract:

The intense fascination with ancient Egypt has persisted for thousands of years and across cultures globally, known popularly as Egyptomania,’ ‘Tutmania,’ ‘Mummymania,’ and ‘Orientalism. A review of the literature indicates psychological themes for its behavior are curiosity, escapism, existentialism, religiosity and spirituality, and cultural, racial, and ethnic identity. A mixed-methods study is initiated with established tools to explore these themes and discover additional motivators. Objectives: The purpose of the study is to explore the themes underlying the intense fascination of ancient Egypt. The abstract themes of the fascination of ancient Egypt are cross-cultural phenomena that motivate people in their interactions with other cultures. These interactions have both been beneficial and combative. Methodology: A mixed methods research study is designed where quantitative (QUAN) survey of participants’ strong fascination with ancient Egypt, within psychological themes derived from a review of the literature. The qualitative (QUAL) survey consists of open-ended questions to explore participants’ exposure to ancient Egypt that may have influenced their fascination and their behaviors resulting from the phenomenon. The themes are explored in QUAN data and QUAL data to discover what themes are established and inferred the psychological motivations of the phenomenon. Main Contributions: This study will provide more information on several scientific disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, Egyptology, and tourism. This study seeks to benefit the tourism industry for not only in Egypt but hopefully with generalizability of cultural tourist industries in other countries.

Keywords: cross-cultural psychology, international psychology, mixed-methods, identity, ancient Egypt, phenomenology, escapism, curiosity, existentialism, religiosity, spirituality

Procedia PDF Downloads 127
715 Trends in Conservation and Inheritance of Musical Culture of Ethnic Groups: A Case Study of the Akha Music in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand

Authors: Nutthan Inkhong, Sutthiphong Ruangchante

Abstract:

Chiang Rai province is located at the northern border of Thailand. Most of the geography there is the northern continental highlands, and the population has many types of inhabitants, including Thai people, immigrants and ethnic groups such as Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Yao, etc. Most of these ethnic groups migrated from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos, China, etc. and settled in the mountains. Each ethnic group has their unique traditions, culture, and ways of life, including the musical culture that the ancestors of each ethnic group brought with them. In the present, the Akha have the largest population in the region and still live together in numerous villages in many districts. Thus, Akha musical culture still appears in the community traditions and cultural events of Chiang Rai province regularly. This article presents the situations of Akha musical culture in the present and the predictions for the future. The study method involves the analysis of music information and the related social contexts, which were collected from the fieldwork of ethnomusicological methodology by in-depth interviews, observations, audio and visual recordings, and related documents. The results found that the important persons who are related with Akha musical culture include (1) a musical instrument maker (lives in Mae Chan district) who produces various Akha musical instruments, including gourd mouth organs, Akha drums, two-way flutes, three-hole flutes, Jew’s harps (the sound of teenage love), buffalo horns (the sound symbol of hunting) and bird call instruments (the imitation of bird sounds), (2) a folk philosopher (lives in Mae Pha Luang district) who can teach music to the new generation of Akha people as well as lecture and demonstrate music to academics and tourists, and (3) a community leader (lives in Mae Chan district) who conserves Akha performances, singing and music through various activities of the students in an informal school. Because of the changes to the social contexts and ways of life of the Akha people, such as the educational system, religion, social media, etc., including the popularity of both Thai and international popular music among the new generation of Akha people, changes to and the fading away of Akha musical culture in the future may likely occur. Therefore, the conservation and inheritance of Akha music is an issue that should be resolved quickly. This primary study leads to the next step of the ethnomusicological work and plays a part in preventing or reducing the problems impacting Akha musical culture survival by the recording of Akha music in all of its dimensions, such as producing musical instruments, playing musical instruments, analysis of tuning systems, recording Akha music as musical notation using symbols, researching related social contexts, etc. and the transcription of this information to create lessons that can be returned to the Akha community.

Keywords: Akha music, Chiang Rai, ethnic music in Thailand, ethnomusicology

Procedia PDF Downloads 161
714 Social Media as a Distribution Channel for Thailand’s Rice Berry Product

Authors: Phutthiwat Waiyawuththanapoom, Wannapong Waiyawuththanapoom, Pimploi Tirastittam

Abstract:

Nowadays, it is a globalization era which social media plays an important role to the lifestyle as an information source, tools to connect people together and etc. This research is object to find out about the significant level of the social media as a distribution channel to the agriculture product of Thailand. In this research, the agriculture product is the Rice Berry which is the cross-bred unmilled rice producing dark violet grain, is a combination of Hom Nin Rice and Thai Jasmine/ Fragrant Rice 105. Rice Berry has a very high nutrition and nice aroma so the product is in the growth stage of the product cycle. The problem for the Rice Berry product in Thailand is the production and the distribution channel. This study is to confirm that the social media is another option as the distribution channel for the product which is not a mass production product. This will be the role model for the other niche market product to select the distribution channel.

Keywords: distribution, social media, rice berry, distribution channel

Procedia PDF Downloads 438
713 Tourist’s Perception and Identification of Landscape Elements of Traditional Village

Authors: Mengxin Feng, Feng Xu, Zhiyong Lai

Abstract:

As a typical representative of the countryside, traditional Chinese villages are rich in cultural landscape resources and historical information, but they are still in continuous decline. The problems of people's weak protection awareness and low cultural recognition are still serious, and the protection of cultural heritage is imminent. At the same time, with the rapid development of rural tourism, its cultural value has been explored and paid attention to again. From the perspective of tourists, this study aimed to explore people's perception and identity of cultural landscape resources under the current cultural tourism development background. We selected eleven typical landscape elements of Lingshui Village, a traditional village in Beijing, as research objects and conducted a questionnaire survey with two scales of perception and identity to explore the characteristics of people's perception and identification of landscape elements. We found that there was a strong positive correlation between the perception and identity of each element and that geographical location influenced visitors' overall perception. The perception dimensions scored the highest in location, and the lowest in history and culture, and the identity dimensions scored the highest in meaning and lowest in emotion. We analyzed the impact of visitors' backgrounds on people's perception and identity characteristics and found that age and education were two important factors. The elderly had a higher degree of perceived identity, as the familiarity effect increased their attention. Highly educated tourists had more stringent criteria for perception and identification. The above findings suggest strategies for conserving and optimizing landscape elements in the traditional village to improve the acceptance and recognition of cultural information in traditional villages, which will inject new vitality into the development of traditional villages.

Keywords: traditional village, tourist perception, landscape elements, perception and identity

Procedia PDF Downloads 146