Title: The role of marketing and technology in the hospitality and tourism business for the economic growth of Thailand.

Introduction:

?Thailand is a country located in Southeast Asia and is one of the members of ASEAN which stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The majority of the Thai economy depends on the revenue that comes from the hospitality and tourism businesses. However, the economy of Thailand was severely destroyed by the pandemic of COVID-19, so economic recovery is a crucial topic that cannot be ignored. Besides, it is also crucial to consider how the Thai people (both inept and adept) rely on the hospitality and tourism industries for their livelihoods and how business affects the GDP of Thailand.

?Objective:

?To improve hospitality and tourism businesses through innovation, entrepreneurship, and marketing.

To enhance hospitality and tourism businesses through technology.

How can technology like digital marketing, blockchain, data science, and artificial intelligence contribute to improving current business and marketing?

How to save the Thai economy from natural disasters like COVID-19?

How to recover the loss of revenue caused by COVID-19.

To what extent do Thai people depend on tourism and hospitality businesses for their survival?

?Significance:

?Marketing plays a vital role in hospitality and tourism businesses' survival, especially for Thailand, whose customers come from all over the globe. Thus, research in the marketing sector is required to tackle the current challenges like lack of technology, awareness, and revenue loss caused by COVID-19. Moreover, what else Thailand can do to improve productivity and revenue generation for the Thai economy.

?Literature Review:

?To begin with, previously, several research had been done on the hospitality and tourism business, but this research will bring new insights after Covid-19. Thailand is known for its hospitality and friendly attitude all over the world, attracting millions of travelers from countries. However, Thailand has gained a good image and reputation by working with and serving millions of tourists for many years. Similarly, the business image and perception of people towards the service, company, and product matter. If people trust your brand and image, they will buy your services and products, which helps the business achieve customer retention. Furthermore, a good branding strategy will help to achieve it. Also, it is vital to maintain customer satisfaction and quality services to the customers because customer retention depends on customer satisfaction.

?What's more, after the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalization rose dramatically, and people relied more on buying things digitally. Hence, every business needs to have a strong presence on the internet. As everyone knows, people visit Thailand from almost every country, so digital marketing can help the tourism and hotel industry build their digital identity. Do the hotels and restaurants familiar with digital marketing technologies like Google Analytics, Google Trend, Google Search Console, Google Data Studio, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, Google My Business, Google Merchant, and Google Tag Manager track customers and their behavior? At present, how the businesses with digital marketing and without digital marketing are performing in terms of revenue generation.

China is the world's most populated country, so understanding the Chinese customers' needs will bring lots of revenue to the Thai economy. In addition, Thailand has to understand the behavior of Russian tourists, followed by aging and family tourists. What else can we do to improve services for them to gain trust and achieve customer retention? As we know, once there is satisfaction with services among travelers, they will ecstatically revisit your hotel and restaurant.

?Moreover, Thailand has to understand how the emerging markets can help recover the Thai economy from COVID-19.

?Thailand is the most LGBT-friendly country in the world. As a result, most people want to visit Thailand as a pilgrimage, so we need to focus more on LGBT tourism and travelers, who can bring in a great deal of money for the economy.

?An emphasis is required on the education sector because it can bring more revenue to the economy by international students. Thailand has to strengthen the education sector and promote medical and tourism degrees, followed by a student exchange program. The more educated the youth, the more Thailand's economy will grow.

?Traveling for business is given an acronym as MICE tourism, which stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Conventions, and Exhibitions/Events. Thailand is the most suitable place for MICE because of its affordable and leisure environment. Hence, research is needed to enhance productivity after COVID-19.

?Thailand is the first choice for the arts and entertainment industry because of its affordability and stunning beaches for film production. It will bring revenue and international fame to Thailand. Hence, it is a prerequisite to find out the current challenges, particularly of this sector.

?A new trend rose among tourists who visit countries at the festivals like Songkran to understand the culture and people. Hence, Thailand has to promote tourism, especially at festivals, which will create employment for unskilled workers. Once people are in Thailand, they fall in love with Thai culture and people, so good food and beverages can lift their mood and make their journey unforgettable. On the other hand, it is crucial to pinpoint the current challenges of gastronomy that depend completely on the agriculture sector. Since the last two years, the consumption of food and beverage has plunged significantly because of the ban on tourism and airlines result in loss of revenue and livelihood to small worker

?Thailand has many stunning beaches and resorts. People want to travel under the sea and try scopa driving and yacht tourism. Therefore, a focus on development in this area is required to enhance the leisure experience of tourists that will bring revenue into dollars and euros.

?The interest in sports activities (such as yacht, kayaking, scuba diving, and others) rose dramatically among tourists, since the last few decades, especially in Phuket. Besides, people have shown interest (investment into millions) in sports as a leisure activity. Thus, it is required to promote volunteer and sports tourism among the people to raise awareness about the sports opportunities in Thailand, and not every tourist knows about it.

?Lastly, we cannot ignore small and medium-sized enterprises and innovation because they create jobs for skilled and unskilled people in Thailand. Research in the area is required to know whether those small businesses have challenges and what the government can do to help them.

?It is yet to find how emerging technologies such as data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain will improve the marketing of hospitality and tourism businesses. For instance, data science can help collect the vast amounts of data generated by hotels, restaurants, and airlines to understand the customer's behavior. And through data visualization, you can predict the risks and customer needs, and behavior. How blockchain technology and digital transactions can help to improve the hospitality and tourism business? Besides, AI and digital marketing's contributions to the hospitality and tourism businesses are yet to explore.

?Research Questions:

?How can technology like data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain help to improve Thailand's economy?

How can technology contribute to improving business?

How much of Thailand's economy and GDP depends on hospitality and tourism?

How will technology like data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain enhance business?

?Research Hypothesis:

?To improve the hospitality and tourism businesses through marketing?

How can modern technology help to achieve productivity and customer behavior goals?

How to avoid and predict risks associated with the hospitality and tourism business, especially for small businesses?

?Duration of research:

?The research will be complete within the allocated time framework at a maximum of one semester or granted time for research work.

?Budget:

?The research will be used through open source software available on Google.

Nonetheless, this research will require travel to collect data from the customers and companies on the availability and willingness to participate.

?Methodology:

?The research will use both quantitative and qualitative approaches. First, the newspaper,

Qualitative data will be gathered from ministry websites, books, and other books that will aid in the collection of qualitative data. Then, interviews, questionnaires, and case studies will help to collect qualitative data. However, the qualitative data will depend on the willingness and participation of the interviewees. A detailed report will help to tackle the challenges of the Thai economy while focusing on the marketing of hospitality and tourism services.

?Pros:

?A study after COVID-19 will improve marketing, hospitality, and tourism businesses using technology for economic growth through e-commerce trade and business innovation.

?Cons:

?It will depend on the support of the Thai people, foreigners, and business owners.

?Research Output:

?A detailed report, along with solutions to the current challenges of the Thai economy caused by COVID-19, plus economic recovery by strengthening marketing strategies for hospitality and tourism businesses,