ENGLISH NEEDS FOR HOTELAND TRAVEL AGENT STAFF IN LUANGPRABANG, THE WORLD HERITAGE TOWN

English is very important for both hotel and travel agent staff in LuangPrabang. This study intended to discover the need of the English in both sectors in order to know the real problems that the hotel and travel agent staff encounter and which English skills they really need in order to bring more effective work for their organizations. Therefore, two sets ofthe questionnaires were distributed to 139 participants (hotel staff=113 and travel agent staff=26). The data from two sets of questionnaires was analyzed by frequency, percentage, and mean. The results of the questionnaire show that the participants in both sectors had problems with translating from Lao to English, writing and pronunciation. The most needed language skills for both thehotel and travel agent staff are speaking, writing, and pronunciation. The most needed skill for the participants is speaking. The results also indicate that they were required to have other skill work in order to work more effectively.