Marketing communication tools for elephant camp business a case study of ayutthaya elephant palace & royal kraal

Abstract

Elephant tourism is very famous in Thailand, but it can pose difficulties regarding ethical issues from an animal welfare stand point. In order to address the problem, it is important for marketers to have tourists understand the real meaning of elephant camp activities. With the goal of making the highest productivity use of marketing communication (MC) tools for elephant camp business, the focus of this study is to examine the productivity from different kinds of MC tools, and purchasing decisions of tourists in relation to Thai elephant camp’s services and products, involving a case study of Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal. This study employs qualitative method to cluster the data by in-dept interview from two administrators of the elephant camp, 20 Thai tourists, three foreign tourists and eight tourist guides. The results show a preference, in order, for purchasing the elephant camp’s services and products from public relations, personal selling, sale promotion and advertising, respectively. In addition, most of the key informants agree that mass media and social media are the most powerful MC tools. On the other hand, advertising through brochure, billboard and poster is less effective than other MC tools. Along with content marketing, MC tool selecting is one of the important ways to turn Thailand’s elephant tourism into a more successful industry.