Evaluating competitiveness of the convention destination: a primary stakeholders' perspective in Chiang Mai City, Thailand

Convention tourism has received more attention as well as research in the field has been growing in number since the past decade. This is due to the fact that the industry is evidenced as a source of contributing substantial revenues to economies, and this has also proved to be a case of developing countries like Thailand where the recently promoted convention sector has contributed significantly to the national GDP. Referring to its relatively newness and less maturity in the global market, many convention city destinations in Thailand seem not to manifest remarkably their ability to compete or attract the global convention tourists, and Chiang Mai city could also be a case. This study was then conducted to evaluate competitiveness of Chiang Mai city as a convention destination from perceptions of critical/primary groups of stakeholders in Chiang Mai convention industry, as well as to evaluate differences in perceptions of stakeholder groups in factors attributing to convention destination competitiveness of Chiang Mai city. The data was collected via a questionnaire survey in 2016 from 46 stakeholders derived from the census sampling which included convention venue providers, professional organisers (professional convention organisers and destination management companies), and hotels facilitating world-class convention facilities and service. The results showed that the stakeholders perceived tourist resources and attractors as well as the city's overall host environment highly competitive and strengthening convention destination competitiveness of Chiang Mai city. On the other hand, they perceived government support and industry cooperation as well as human resources development as factors less contributing to the competitiveness of the city. In addition, the t-test results showed differences in perceptions of diverse stakeholders in terms of human resources, convention infrastructure, and support infrastructure