European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010)

Central Thailand Wat Tourism: Strategy for Tourism Promotion of Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA)
Sakon Phu-ngamdee The Thesis under the supervision of Assistant Professor Dr. Songkoon Chantachon and Dr. Ying Keerathiburana, Research Institute of Northeast Thailand Arts and Culture Mahasarakham University, Tarad Subdistrict, Muang District Mahasarakham Province, Thailand, 44000 E-mail: sakon60@yahoo.com Tel: (66) 43-72-1686; Fax: (66) 43-72-1686 Abstract This study was conducted under the supervision of Assistant Professor Dr. Songkoon Chantachon and Dr. Ying Keerathiburana. The study was proceeded with three aims: to provide a complete history of the project of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour performed by Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA); to identify the problems and their causes which arose during the project’s implementation; and to develop a strategy for promoting Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour as a tourist destination. Data were collected from official document, participatory observation, and key informant interview with eighty four persons under purposive sampling method, as well as two workshops with BMTA officials. The results were analyzed with SWOT analysis to identify the project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strength of the project were ticket price, tourism activities, service quality, attractive entities and tourist’s belief responsiveness. The weakness was the public relations. The opportunities were the needs of most tourists requiring the long-term legal approval of the project, as well as the cooperations from communities and targeted temples in providing appropriate service for building tourist’s impression. The threat was from four external problems the BMTA had while conducting the project, namely; difficulty of long-term legal approval, claims from private companies, conditions for permission process and competitors in tourism market. The outcomes of the SWOT analysis were used to prepare a draft strategy. Workshops were organized to consider and improve the draft. The final improvement was led to the completion of final strategy for the promotion of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour as a tourist destination.

Keywords: Cultural Tourism, Religious Tourism, Tourism Strategy, Nine Temple Tour in Thailand

Introduction
At present, according to World Health Organization (WHO), depressive symptoms are the factors that affect mental health of people. From the world health records in 2005, the total amounts of patients with the symptoms were counted for the second rank, which the first one was heart disease (WHO. 2005). However, the symptoms could be cured by various ways. Department of Mental Health, Public Health Ministry of Thailand revealed that there were many ways to relieve the mentioned illness. One from many means was to temporarily change the daily life sphere and do some relaxing activities, such as traveling to somewhere with family or friends. This kind of activity could make those people more 633

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010) relaxed and healthy (Department of Mental Health. 2009). According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), tourism could be an interesting activity for people who need mental cure. Apart from natural sources tourism, or sight-seeing tour, people could visit the religious places as destinations of religious tourism (TAT. 2007). Nowadays, there are several projects like religious tourism, one of them is called Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour. Charti Piromkul (2008) disclosed that this tour could be responsive to Thai people’s belief about having full of good fortune and wealth which arose from the activities of nine temples tour. Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) is the privatized agency under Transport Ministry of Thailand. Although the BMTA’s major function is the provision of transportation within Bangkok and surrounding provinces, however, for three reasons, the BMTA is also responsible for the Project of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour. Firstly, the BMTA needs to conform to the government policy which is the enhancement of national income through the tourism promotion. Secondly, it has recognized its own capacity through previous experience in transporting people to some tourist spots in BMTA air-conditioned buses. Lastly, the BMTA wants to generate more income to enhance the organization’s independence. This BMTA’s project has been preferred by thousand of tourists over other tour agencies’ projects since 2006. However, the BMTA has faced the obstacles that block the project’s progress. In this regard, the researcher aimed to study the project and develop a strategy for promoting the mentioned tour program as a tourist destination to help BMTA further the project for permanent implementation. This can help BMTA serve the government policy, as well as have more financial self-reliance.

History of Wai Pra Kao Wat (Nine Temples) Tour Project
Bangkhen Bus Station under the BMTA was the project initiator on 1st January 2006 and remained in that role throughout the duration of this study in 2008. At present, the project provides the service on both Saturday and Sunday in fourteen provinces, including Bangkok with each route covering nine temples. Although the BMTA’s major function is the provision of transportation within Bangkok and surrounding provinces, however, for three reasons, the BMTA is also responsible for the Project of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour. Firstly, the BMTA needs to conform to government policy which is the enhancement of national income through the tourism promotion.. Secondly, it has recognized its own capacity through previous experience in transporting people to some tourist spots in BMTA air-conditioned buses. Lastly, the BMTA wants to generate more income to enhance the organization’s independence. The BMTA criteria for selecting targeted temples as the tourist destinations were: 1) having monks who permanently live in the temple 2) being poor temples which need help and donation 3) having monks who practice their missions in ethical and moral ways 4) being ready to cooperate with the BMTA to prepare things to welcome the tourists The BMTA criteria for service provision were as follows: 1. Ticket service: Bangkhen Bus Station focused on simple and easy way for tourists to purchase tickets. The tourists did not need to transfer money via commercial banks. They could buy tickets with cash at the ticket counter at Bangkhen Bus Station in early morning on the day they decided to travel. This service could eliminate the complication of ticket reservation. 2. Bus safety provision: Bangkhen Bus Station used the EURO-TWO Air-conditioned buses to transport the tourists to the targeted temples. The drivers had to check up all systems of the bus for safety service. Also, they prepared cleanliness and tidiness in each bus to make tourists impressed. In addition, for a safety and convenience reason, the station provided only thirty five seats in each bus with only five additional seats for a necessary case. 3. Tourism activities: the activities on the bus were divided into three phrases, namely; 634

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010) 1) Before departure: The guide team introduced the tour program and service 2) During traveling: The team described the history or attraction of each targeted temple and introduced games to tourists for joyful sphere, and 3) Going home duration: the team persuaded tourists to play games for winning the souvenirs. Most importantly, during visiting the temples, the Buddhism rituals and practices were the main activities of the project. During this main activities, the senior monk of targeted temple had to preside in a place while tourists doing activities of praying, meditating and offering things to the monks. However, the other kinds of ritual such as ghost-belief rite would not be the project main focus. The project was given the cooperation from targeted temples to provide cleanliness and convenience of the restroom and surrounding places, as well as help from the local people to prepare candles, joss sticks, flowers, food and beverage for the tourists. All mentioned focuses of activities in the temple could be the tools to make tourists impressed. 4. Selling points of the project: the selling point was the “Buddhism Praying” based on Thai people’s belief and faiths. This selling point was responsive to the belief that praying could bring about happiness and prosperous life. In addition, tourists who joined the project could have opportunities to help poor temples with money or donation that was the good thing for Buddhist people should behave. 5. Quality of service: The guide team for each route which consisted of team leader, money collector and driver, was trained to provide service with hospitality and polite manner. Furthermore, they were trained to describe information about the targeted temples as much as they could, as well as, introduce games for tourist entertainment. 6. Quality evaluation: Director of Bangkhen Bus Station always joined the project in every route to evaluate service quality and tourists satisfaction. If there were anything the tourists unsatisfied, the director would suggest the guide team to improve themselves or find other officers to replace the unqualified staff. The project performance during 2006-2008 were as follows: 1. Tourists favor: At the beginning of the project, from January 2006, there were both high and low amounts of tourists during the year. This fluctuant level was caused by three problems: 1) Unreadiness of project management such as budgeting and staffing 2) Inconveniences of targeted temples such as unqualified restroom service, and 3) Inconveniences of the tourists such as lack of time to join the project in weekend. However, from 2007 to 2008, the tourists joined the trip increasingly. In 2008, there were about 3,000 tourists in average per month. This increase of tourists could bring about more income for the BMTA. 2. The BMTA’s income from the project: The main source of income came from ticket selling. This revenue was brought to manage in the BMTA budgeting plan. The expenditure for the project management was covered only the cost of necessary stuff, such as the logo badge for the BMTA Wai Pra Kao Wat Tour Project, and souvenirs for game rewards on the bus. The expenditure was not covered the part-time wage of the guide team because they were willing to work voluntarily on weekend. In this regard, the expenditure was smaller than revenue so that this tour project could make more income and profit for the BMTA. 3. Future goal of the project: If the BMTA could be approved by the Transport Ministry to continue the project in long run, the BMTA would improve the quality of service as much as possible. The instances of the improvement were: 1) Time management with sooner arrival in Bangkok 2) Introducing new route such as Chonburi province to attract more tourists.

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Methodology
This study was the qualitative research. It was focused on finding the data from previous ways in proceeding Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour Project of the BMTA, in six issues, namely; public relations, ticket price, tourism activities, service quality, attractive entities and tourist’s belief responsiveness, together with four external problems which arose from the project implementation, namely; long-term legal approval, claims from private companies, conditions for permission process and competitors in tourism market. The research samples were five from fourteen provinces in central Thailand. There were three from nine temples in each province to be the targeted places for data collection: Then, the total amount of samples was fifteen temples. The targeted provinces included Bangkok, Singburi, Petchaburi, Chachoengsao and Ratchaburi. The key informants of the research were: 1. Three officers in related departments of Bangkhen Bus Station under the BMTA, and eleven officers of other organizations concerning tourism promotion. 2. The guide team of each targeted province which consisted of three persons; a team leader, a money collector and a driver 3. Five Thai tourists of each targeted province 4. One senior monk in targeted temple of each targeted province 5. Five local people who help provide services in each targeted province Data collection was conducted via the research tools including official document review, participatory observation and key informant interview with open-ended questions. The results were brought to analyze with SWOT analysis to find the project’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. The SWOT-analysis results were brought to draft the strategy.

SWOT Analysis Results
Data from the official documents review, participatory observation and key informant interview were brought to analyze with SWOT analysis. The results were as follows: 1) The strengths of the project were ticket price, tourism activities, service quality, attractive entities and tourist’s belief responsiveness 2) The weakness was the public relations 3) The opportunities were the needs of most tourists requiring the long-term legal approval of the project, as well as the cooperations from communities and targeted temples in providing appropriate service for building tourist’s impression. 4) The threat was from four external problems which the BMTA had while conducting the project, namely; difficulty of long-term legal approval, claims from private companies, conditions for permission process and competitors in tourism market. The outcomes of the SWOT analysis were used to prepare a draft strategy. Two workshops were organized to consider and improve the draft. The final improvement was led to the completion of final strategy for the promotion of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour Project as a tourist destination.

The Strategy for Promoting Wai Pra Kao Wat (Nine Temples) Tour Project of the BMTA
The strategy was developed from the SWOT analysis results. It consisted of four aspects fifteen strategies. The strategies were as follows:

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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010) 1. Aggressive Strategy To maintain BMTA’s strengths and make use of its opportunities, the BMTA should conduct the following sub-strategies: Strategy 1: Launch the campaign for Buddhism activities dissemination Strategy 2: Enhance the network of temples for Buddhism activities dissemination Strategy 3: Enhance the service quality with comprehensive dimensions Strategy 4: Promote the tourism sphere in association with the local economy Strategy 5: Use more public relations activities for increasing tourists in association with the quality service with comprehensive dimensions 2. Turnaround-Oriented Strategy To make use of BMTA’s opportunities and solve problems from its weakness, the BMTA should conduct the following sub-strategies: Strategy 1: Seek for more alliances to enhance more channels of public relations activities Strategy 2: Seek for more alliances to improve quality of the guide team through comprehensive trainings Strategy 3: Seek for more alliances to enhance efficient capability for giving more warm welcome to the tourists 3. Sustainability Maintenance Strategy To maintain BMTA’s strengths and control its threats, the BMTA should conduct the following substrategies: Strategy 1: Cooperate with targeted temples to control the request for a certain amount of money donation Strategy 2: Drive the related agencies to approve the project as a legal tourism program for permanent conduction 4. Defensive Strategy To solve the problems from the BMTA’s weakness and control its threats, the BMTA should conduct the following sub-strategies: Strategy 1: Make use of the synergy to combine efforts from internal staff and outside alliances to cooperate with targeted temples to control the request for a certain amount of money donation Strategy 2: Make use of the synergy to combine efforts from the outside alliances to enhance more channels of public relations activities Strategy 3: Make use of the synergy to combine efforts from the outside alliances to improve quality of the guide team through comprehensive trainings Strategy 4: Make use of the synergy to combine efforts from the outside alliances to enhance efficient capability for giving more warm welcome to the tourists Strategy 5: Make use of the synergy to combine the driving force from the related agencies and the project’s fans for the project approval as a legal tourism program for permanent conduction

Mechanisms for Strategy Implementation
1. Key agency: the BMTA will be the focal operator to implement the strategy. This can be the ways to conform to the government policy and enhance financial self-reliance. 637

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010) 2. Supportive agencies: Transport Ministry of Thailand can support the BMTA by approving the project as legal tourism program. Other social institutes, such as temples, can help the BMTA with their cooperation to prepare services for making tourists impressed. Project Evaluation Bangkhen Bus Station under the BMTA, as the project initiator and operator, should be the project evaluator. The evaluation must be made at least once a year. The station should report the assessment results to the head office of BMTA and the Transport Ministry for ensuring the project success. Critical Success Factors for Strategy Implementation 1. The project approval as a legal tourism program for permanent conduction 2. Great interest in commitment from all related executives and staff of the BMTA to conduct the project in association with the given strategies 3. Trustable supports from the outside alliances for the project conduction 4. Tourists’ favor and repeated consumption behavior which continuously delivered to the project 5. Thoughtful cooperation from the targeted temples to conduct the Buddhism rituals, as well as the good service concerning restroom and surrounding areas 6. Kind cooperation from local people in providing necessary stuffs for Buddhism rituals, selling local products, as well as giving warm welcome to tourists with hospitality

Discussions
The research results were in cooperative with the theories as follows: 1. The project of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour of the BMTA has been favored by most tourists since 2007 to 2009 which shown by the appearance of high-level satisfaction paid to the major activity of the project-Buddhism rituals. The project responded to Thai tourists’ belief, especially belief of prosperous life through praying, meditating and offering necessary things to monks. The importance of the major activity-Buddhism rituals was in cooperative with the major concept of Functionalism Theory (Malinowski 1884-1942) While the theological concept focused on the role of religious and rituals which important for serving the state of human’s mental assurances, the key activity of the project could respond to the state. Furthermore, the theological concept also focused on the role of religious that could strengthen mental power for dealing with crisis circumstance, the project also provided the activities that Thai Buddhists believed that they could bring about stronger mental health, such as Buddhism principles teaching imparted by the senior monks in the targeted temples during the visiting time. In this respect, this could conclude that the activities of the project were in cooperative with the major concept of Functionalism Theory. 2. The project of Wai Pra Kao Wat (nine temples) Tour of the BMTA has been favored by most tourists since 2007 to 2009 and many of them had their traveling repetitions in most routes of the project. From the results of in-depth interview, most interviewees revealed that they repeated their traveling to some routes, which already visited, because of their personal pleasure. The common reason for this traveling repetition was that they assessed the project as the source of happiness. In this regard, it could infer from the mentioned tourists’ assessment that they interpreted the project including its activity as the valuable thing for mental health. In addition, the project was worth joining as well as spending time and money for it. With regard to the main concept of Symbolism Relationship Theory (Mead. 1863–1931; Blumer. 1900-1987), the theory focused on the statement that if human interpret things valuable for their livings, they would do or conform to those things. This concluded that the project-value interpretation, which led tourists to repeat their traveling, was in cooperative with the main concept of Symbolism Relationship Theory. 638

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010) 3. Apart from the major activity of the project-Buddhism rituals, the attractive entities in the targeted temples were the project’s appeals which made the tourists impressed. There were many kinds of artificial materials, such as statues or images of other religious or beliefs; Ganesh and Isawa images in Hinduism or Brahmanism belief, Kuan-Im the Chinese Goddess, Shrine of Takian Tree Guardian or Tree Spirit in Thai rural beliefs, etc. These artificial things, built by human, also attracted some tourists as well as made them happy to have a chance for doing what they liked, apart from Buddhism rituals. From the results of in-depth interview, most interviewees revealed that they were pleasant to see and pay respect to the mentioned artificial materials, although these materials were not the Buddhism images. With regard to the main concept of Aesthetics Theory (Hegel. 1770 –1831), it focused that the artificial beauty of any materials created by human, apart from natural beauty, was the factor for making human impressed, happy, and enjoyable. Also the artificial beauty could affect human’s state of mind and manner of behaving. This concluded that the project’s entities concerning artificial materials in the temples, which made tourists happy, were in cooperative with the main concept of Aesthetics Theory. 4. In the targeted temples, there were not only the Buddhism attractive entities like images or architectures, such as pagoda, chapel, etc, but also the artificial things which were statues or images of other religious or beliefs. However, these attractive entities of other religious could attracted some tourists and made them happy, apart from Buddhism symbolic entities. Regarding the key concept of Cultural Diffusion Theory (Wissler 1870-1947 and Kroeber 1876–1960), it focused on the statement that in any communities or societies, there would be the other cultural or religious materials and ideologies diffused to the targeted places that could affect the existing main culture, religion or social beliefs. This concluded that the diffusion of statues or images of other religious or beliefs in the targeted temples, which made tourists happy, were in cooperative with the main concept of Cultural Diffusion Theory. 5. From the results of participatory observation as well as in-depth interview, the “Words of Mouth” was the common source of news about the project’s detail which most tourists heard from. This kind of communication channel told about the project from one person to another and to other persons. There were not much other media for information delivery. There were only a few communication channels on some websites. There were not much tourist pocket books which could be channels to publicize the project details to the tourists. In this regard, the tourists, therefore, reflected the needs for more activities of pubic relations to deliver the project’s information in wider range of targeted group. Regarding the key concept of Communication Art Theory (McLuhan, 1911 –1980), it focused on the statement that sufficient information through the wide coverage of media types would be the effective channels to deliver the messages to the targeted groups. Also, the wide coverage of media types could influence the consumption behaviors of the targeted groups to do in a way that the media owners wanted them to conform to. This concluded that the inadequate activities of public relations of the project were the problem that could be solved by using the main concept of Communication Art Theory.

Limitations of the Research
1. Political problems in Bangkok, Thailand during the year 2006-2008, especially the movements of the yellow and red protestors, seriously affected the data collection process of the research. Among the political events, the tourists which were in the group of research key informants could not travel to join the BMTA tour project. So, the researcher could make the interview only with a group of monks in the targeted temples in Bangkok. This limitation could reflect the causal relationship between politics and tourism. 2. Eleven key informants who were the officers of other related tourism ministries or organizations, excluded the officers of the BMTA, refused to disclose their opinions about the BMTA tour project. The reason for the refuse was that the BMTA initiated and conducted the project on its own 639

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 4 (2010) process without mutual consideration from other agencies. This restriction limited the research to conduct only three methods; participatory observation, in-depth interview, and two workshops. Hence, the method of focus group discussion was not implemented during the research process.

Recommendations for Research Results Application
1. Bangkhen Bus Station under the BMTA, as the project initiator, should comprehensively review the strategies proposed in this research to make use of them effectively. This can help the BMTA conform well to the government policy and have more financial self-reliance in a desired length of time. 2. Bangkhen Bus Station should concern with the critical success factors for strategy implementation, so that the station could have more clear directions to conduct the strategies successfully. 3. The station should focus on building networks to further the tour project in the long-run and making use of effective synergy gathered from every alliance. 4. Government should support the BMTA to conduct its tour project by making legal approval for the project implementation. 5. The research results, especially the proposed strategies, should be considered as the guideline to initiate the up-coming tourism studies. The next researches should be conducted to examine more about other success factors for implementing cultural and religious tourism projects in Thailand. This could help Tourism Sector of Thailand enhance capacities to achieve the goal of nation incomes acceleration.

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