Integrated Marketing Strategies Affecting Creative Tourism Achievement of Community Enterprises in the Central River Basin

Abstract

The objectives of this research were twofold: 1) to investigate the personal characteristics of tourists and examine factors including integrated marketing communication, perceived service quality, customer relationship management, brand image, and the achievement of creative tourism within community-based tourism enterprises in the Central River Basin region; and 2) to predict the influence of integrated marketing strategies-consisting of integrated marketing communication, perceived service quality, customer relationship management, and brand image-on the achievement of creative tourism in the aforementioned area. The study’s sample comprised 400 tourists visiting community enterprises in the Central River Basin, calculated based on an unknown population size and selected through simple random sampling. Statistical analysis involved percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis. The research findings revealed that the majority of the tourists were Thai females, aged 41-50, holding a bachelor’s degree, employed as civil servants, and earning a monthly income between 20,001 and 30,000 Bath. Travel decisions were primarily made in conjunction with family members, with most visits lasting 1-2 days. Overall, all studied factors-namely brand image, customer relationship management, creative tourism achievement, perceived service quality, and integrated marketing communication-were rated at a moderate level. Furthermore, the study found that integrated marketing communication, perceived service quality, customer relationship management, and brand image were all positively correlated with the achievement of creative tourism. The strongest correlation was observed between customer relationship management and brand image, reflecting that maintaining strong relationships with tourists directly contributes to brand confidence in these community enterprises. Regarding the predictive model, the analysis demonstrated that all factors collectively explained 73% of the variance in creative tourism achievement. The individual factors influencing this success, ranked by their impact, were brand image, perceived service quality, customer relationship management, and integrated marketing communication, respectively.