Guidelines for Tour Guide Development: Case Study Koh Samui District, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

                 The objectives of this research were to study the views of foreign tourists, business owners, tour guides, and government officers about guides in tourism business, and to provide suggestions in tour guides development in Koh Samui, Surat Thani province. The samples in this research were 400 foreign tourists for quantitative data collection, and 5 tourism business owners, 10 tour guides, and 4 government officers for qualitative data collection. The tools in this study were interviews and questionnaires. The data from the interviews was analyzed by content analysis. The frequency, mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the data from the questionnaires. The result of this research revealed that opinions from the foreign tourists and tourism business owners showed that guides should definitely be improved; especially, their personalities, following by attitudes, skills, and knowledge, respectively. The tour guides viewed that guides should definitely be improved, and the most thing that should be improved was the guides' attitudes, following by their personalities, skills, and knowledge, respectively. The government officers viewed that guides should definitely be improved; especially, their personalities, following by skills, attitudes, and knowledge, respectively.