A Confirmation Factor Analysis of the Potential Level Scale for Halal Tourist Sites in Lower Songkhla Lake

This research aims to examine the coherence between the potential levels of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla lagoon area for Muslim tourists with empirical data. The sample consisted of 400 Muslim tourists. This research used questionnaire to collect the data which had a confidence value of Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha with a confidence value of 0.960. The researchers analyzed the structural validity of the potential levels about halal tourist attractions around the lower Songkhla lagoon for Muslim tourists by analyzing the second corroborative component using a statistical computer program. The second corroborative component analysis revealed that the potential levels of Halal Tourist Sites in the Lower Songkhla lagoon consisted of 6 components of equal importance with component weights of 0.78, 0.84, 0.83, 0.93, 0.90, and 0.87. The results of checking the consistency of the empirical component model found that the chi-square statistic is 391.24 at 259 degrees of freedom, the probability is 0.00, the relative chi-square statistic is 1.51, the Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) is 0.93 and the Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) is 0.90, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) is 0.99, the Root Mean Square Residual (RMR) is 0.02 and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation: RMSEA) is 0.04, which indicates that the potential levels of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla lagoon area for Muslim tourists consistent with the empirical data and it consists of 6 components: Accessibility, Environment, Tourism Management, Facilities, Value, and Response.


INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the Muslim market is more important from the factors of population and economic potential of Muslim countries. A study of Pew Research Center found that Islam is growing faster than other religions. It is estimated that by 2050 there will be 2.8 billion Muslims or 29.67 percent of the world's population. The region with the most Muslim populations is the Asia-Pacific region, South Africa of the Sahara Desert and the Middle East -North Africa. In Thailand, it was predicted that Muslims living will continue to increase with 5.6 million Muslims by 2050. The main reason for the growth of Islam is that Muslims have a higher fertility rate than other religions and the lowest average age in all major religious groups. Dinar Standard forecasts that Muslims will spend up to International Journal of Social Service and Research, Waraporn Suksanchananun, Nhatphaphat Juicharoen, Suradetch Wangthong IJSSR Page 1353 $2.4 trillion by 2024 at a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.1 percent (TPSO, 2021). Therefore, halal tourism which is not contrary to Islamic principles has started to play a role and is more attractive. The expansion of Muslim tourists will also lead more diversified demand for halal tourism products such as Halal Airlines, halal restaurant and halal hotels. It is foreseeable that after the vaccination of the coronavirus, the coverage of many regions will increase and expand again. Therefore, the development of tourism to support the expansion of the Muslim world is an issue that many countries should pay attention again. Although halal tourism has started to play an increasingly important role in the tourism industry, halal tourism in accordance with halal principles is still new in Thailand. From the research study on "Halal Hotels: New Opportunities for Thailand's Hospitality Industry" found that if Thailand can increase the supply of halal tourism, It will changes Muslim tourists mind who was not initially choose come to Thailand because there are less halal tourism options and turning back to Thailand more, It will bring the tourism revenue from a group known for its high potential customers (Uruyos, 2021).
Generally, Muslim tourists come to Thailand to travel in every region but southern region is the most popular places to travel. It can be seen from tracking the arrival of tourists after Thailand canceled the Test & Go system. It was found that More than 2,000 Malaysian tourists traveled through the Sadao border during May 1-2, 2022 (Thansettakij, 2022). Therefore, the research teams created a model to measure the potential level of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla lagoon area for Muslim tourists to come up in order to prepare to support halal tourism that will return after the COVID-19 situation unfold.
The potential of tourist attractions is availability of tourist attractions that are conducive to development, improvement or change, including the attractiveness of the locality which is sufficient to attract tourists to decide to go to that attraction or not.
The research team has compiled the criteria for consideration and determination of potential from researchers as shown in Tables 1 and 2 as follows:   Thus, this study aims to create a model to measure the potential of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon area for Muslim tourists..

METHODS
This research is a survey research. The tool used for collecting data is a questionnaire. The sample group is 400 Muslim tourists which is the maximum sample size for research, by using a stratified sampling method of Muslim tourists and selecting a simple tourist destination (Simple Random Sampling) as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Stratified Sampling of Muslim Tourists
The research tools consisted of 2 parts: 1) a questionnaire on personal data including gender, age, income, occupation, and education, parts 2) a questionnaire on the potential level of halal tourist attractions. The nature of the questions is a 5-level estimation scale, according to the Liquert format. The potential level scales of halal tourist attractions are the most, most, the moderate, the least and least. In order for the questionnaire to be Validity, the IOC was determined by gathering opinions from experts to calculate. The results of the analysis found that all items were valued between 0.6-1.00 and confidence was Reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient has a value of 0.960. The questionnaire is divided into 6 parts as follows: 1) Accessibility consists of 5 sub-questions, 2) Environment consists of 5 sub-questions, 3) Tourism Management consists of 5 sub-questions, 4) Facilities consist of 4 sub-questions, 5) Value consisting of 4 sub-questions and 6) Response consisting of 4 sub-questions.
The data analysis was used computer program to analyse the Secondary Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (2nd CFA) to verify structural validity by considering the conformity of models based on theoretical structural equations with empirical data. The statistical measure of the level of conformity used Chi-square statistic, Relative chi-square statistic, Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Adjusted Goodness index of Fit Index (AGFI), the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the Root Mean square Residual (RMR), the root mean square of the approximation (RMSEA) and compared the significance weights of the elements with the empirical data to find the weights of all 6 elements. However, before analysing the second confirmation component, preliminary data must be screened and examined as follows: 1) Check data outliers using the Mahalanobis Distance method.
2) The remaining data from step 1 were used to check the normal distribution of the data with skewness and kurtosis. 3) Check for Multicollinearity Issues between latent variables in the structural equation model. 4) Check the suitability of the sample. (Kaiser-Mayor-Olkin: KMO) 5) Check the population correlation metric is an identity matrix using Bartlett's test.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the data analysis were divided into 2 parts as follows: A. The results of screening and preliminary examination of the data were as follows: 1. The results of the Mahalanobis Distance data outlier investigation showed that there were 31 outliers, so this study was left with 369 samples. 2. The results of checking the normal distribution of the data found that the Skew Index (SI) was between -1.37 and -0.69, which was not more than 2 and it was considered symmetrical or not very skewed and the Kurtosis Index (KI) ranged from -0.153 to 2.537, no greater than 7. The International Journal of Social Service and Research, Waraporn Suksanchananun, Nhatphaphat Juicharoen, Suradetch Wangthong IJSSR Page 1359 data were considered normal distribution (West, Finch, & Curran, 1995cited in Milfont & Duckitt, 2004. 3. The investigating issue found that multicollinearity between latent variables in the structural equation model and correlation coefficient between latent variables not more than 0.80 as in Table 3, so there is no problem and multicollinearity between latent variables in the structural equation model. Table 3 The correlation coefficient between latent variables 4. The results of the examination of the suitability of the samples (Kaiser-Mayor-Olkin: KMO) KMO was 0.949, which is very high (nearly one) (de Vaus, 1991 cited by Mani Aphanantikul, Rujiret Thanurak, and Yuwadee lucha, 2008), mean that the sample group is suitable. The data can be analyzed for the second corroborative component. 5. The results of checking the population correlation metric as an identity matrix or not, it was found that the Bartlett's test statistic was less than 0.05, indicating that the correlation metric was not an identity metric, meaning that the variables were completely independent of each other, therefore grouping of variables to form components is possible, so the second order confirmation component should be further analyzed.
B. The results of the structural validity analysis of the potential level of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon area for Muslim tourists, a second confirmatory component analysis revealed that the weights of each of the six aspects were positive, high ranging from 0.78 to 0.94, and were statistically significant at the 0.001 level for all values. The descending order of component weights were 0.94, 0.90, 0.87, 0.84, 0.83, and 0.78 respectively, medium to high ranging from 0.51 to 0.90 and when considering the harmony with the empirical data, it was found that the chi-square statistic ( 2)   The results of the structural validity analysis of the potential scale of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla lagoon area for Muslim tourists by analyzing the second confirmation element, it was found that the statistical values used to determine the coherence of the model with the overall empirical data were all acceptable, which means the overall structure of the potential scale of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon area For Muslim tourists is consistent with the empirical data according to the established criteria. This may be due to this questionnaire being built in accordance with the research tool development principles with the review of the quality of the research tools meeting the established criteria.
When considering the weight of the components in each sub-component of the model for measuring the potential of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon for Muslim tourists, the weight of each component for most of the subjects was found to be high, greater than 0.50 and the main component weights of each aspect of the model for measuring the potential of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon there was a high elemental weight, indicating that the Halal Tourist Attraction Scale in lower of Songkhla Lagoon area was high for Muslim tourists and consistent with empirical data which includes Accessibility, Environment, Tourism Management, Facilities, Value, and Response.

CONCLUSION
Those involved should bring components of Accessibility, Environment, Tourism Management, Facilities, Value, and Response used to measure the potential of halal attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon area as a guideline to improve tourist attractions in order to prepare them to support halal tourism to return after the COVID-19 situation resolves. Moreover, the researcher should develop a model to measure the potential of halal tourist attractions in the lower Songkhla Lagoon for Muslim tourists to provide a standardized measurement that can be used with halal attractions in all places.