Abstract

In Thailand, equipping local youth guides with English communication skills plays a crucial role in promoting tourist destinations. Tourism has been growing worldwide in the last decade, and the need for fluency in the English language among tourist guides to attract tourism is increasing sharply. The main aim of this study is to focus on the English communication needs and problems in speaking and listening skills for tourism promotion. The study is a descriptive survey on English communication needs and problems encountered by 250 local youth guides in promoting tourism. The survey was conducted at five local tourist destinations in Pathio district in Chumphon Province, southern Thailand. The data were evaluated using the statistical package SPSS (26.0), after the questionnaire was completed, and the statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The need for local youth guides to talk and provide knowledge about tourism destinations in English was gauged. The findings revealed that speaking and listening skills are the most critical communication skills at visitor meetings and the most valuable skills in interactions with tourists. This result was also consistent with youths’ and stakeholders’ assessments of English as a language for providing general information, providing services, and offering assistance, thereby fostering interest among the youth in learning English.