Assessment of Sales and Digital Marketing Personnel in Hotel Business, Phuket, Thailand.

Abstract

Since the information and communication technology (ICT) advancement has shifted from traditional to digital marketing and hotel business in the tourism industry is also the primary sector that implements ICT. Thus, it is crucial to study and assess whether the sales and marketing personnel working in the hotel business in Phuket, Thailand are equipped with sales and digital marketing skill sets for the changing business environment. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to sales and marketing personnel working in the hotel business in Phuket, Thailand. A total of 210 useable questionnaires were subject to descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including paired sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. It is found that the respondents acquired most of the skills in the dimension of interpersonal and salesmanship skills. Moreover, the skills of the dimension of interpersonal and salesmanship skills were also the required skills that the respondents perceived that it is important to be equipped with to work in hotel business’s sales and marketing. However, there were 34 out of 39 skill gaps that were statistically significantly different between the current level of acquired and future important level of required skill set. In addition, most of the skills in the dimension of search engine marketing (SEM) were the biggest skill gap that sales and digital marketing personnel are facing. The study result indicates that interpersonal skills, salesmanship skills, and digital marketing skills are perceived as essential skills that require reskilling and upskilling to gain a competitive advantage in the hotel business in the digital economy.