Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Sport Tourism

Abstract

Developing a standard for Green Golf Course for Sustainable Sport Tourism has become a crucial matter as it can enable Thailand to pioneer the Sport Tourism market, push forward golf in Thailand to receive international recognition in environmental conservation as well as support growth of golf in the near future. Therefore, applying the Golf Environment Organization (GEO)’s Sustainable Golf Development to Thailand’s Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Sport Tourism is necessary. It will elevate Golf Sport Tourism to an international level and make it globally recognized and attract more golf tourists. For that reason, the objectives of this research were: (1) to study the properties of the Thai version of Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Sport Tourism and (2) to obtain a standard for Green Golf Course for Sustainable Sport Tourism that can be appropriately applied to Thailand.
Development of Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Sport Tourism is adapted from the original English version, Sustainable Golf Development, which we were granted permission to translate. The process of developing a Thai version of the Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Sport Tourism was referenced from Nantana Sawadipanich and Sujitra Tiansawad (2011: 19–27) and Beaton, Bombardier, Guillemin and Ferraz (2000) who proposed the translation and cultural adaptation process.
The population and the sample group for the research were purposely sampled, consisting of 9 experts in Physical Education, Golf, Environment, English, Research and Landscape Architecture. The sample group for the trial of application of the Green Golf Course Standard was also purposely sampled, yielding 30 people who were golf tourists, government employees and community leaders, executives and staffs from tour operators and experts. The area of the study included Bangkok, Phuket, Prachuap Khiri Khan (Hua Hin), Chonburi (Pattaya) and Chiangmai. The tool used in the study was the Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Tourism.

The research results showed that:
(1)Content Validity: In terms of content validity, there was a comparison between the original version and the back-translated version of the Standard to consider the appropriateness of the language and grammar used. Index of Congruence (IOC) between the original version and the Thai version which was used as the trial version yields was also considered. The IOC result of the Thai version (pre-final version) yielded 0.57 - 1.00.
(2)Application of the Thai version of Green Golf Course Standard: Data inquired from the 30 samples was used to calculate Internal Consistency. The result of Cranach’s alpha Coefficient for the Standard was 0.82 and the Item-to-total Correlation Coefficient was between 0.48 and 0.67, which was higher than the standard criteria of 0.30. Moreover, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient yielded 0.86, resulting in high reliability.
In conclusion, the Green Golf Course Standard for Sustainable Tourism can be applied to Thailand in 3 stages namely 1) Planning which has 6 areas, 36 items; 2) Design which has 6 areas, 34 items; and 3) Construction which has 7 areas, 52 items. This then gives 122 items in total.