Approaches for the Development on Hotel Business Service Provision Strategies to Support the Aging Society: Lessons from Yala, Thailand

The aging society is one of the important issues that all sectors need to focus on. Similarly, the hotel business has to understand the tourism behavior, demands, or factors affecting the decision to choose accommodation of this elderly group. This research was therefore conducted and the data were collected from 399 tourists aged 60 years and over in Yala, Thailand. The data analysis discovered that most of these tourists like to travel in natural tourist attractions. They travel with their families by personal car. They stay overnight for 1-3 nights at their convenience. It is neither limited to weekdays nor weekend nor long vacation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they travelled about 1-2 times a year and stayed in the hotels with room rate less than 1,000 baht/night. The 7 service marketing strategy factors are all important for the tourists to make the decision on the accommodation choices at a high level. The factor of service provider, factor of product, and factor of physical features are considered very important as a top priority. Thus, the entrepreneurs need to develop service strategies in these areas, for example, selecting employees who have good personality, good dress, polite speech, and service-minded, paying attention to the cleanliness and hygiene of the hotel. These include the arrangement of environment and facilities for the elderly to meet their needs as well.