Tourism, theoretically, is perceived as either important for rural sustainability or major cause in host community impacts. Practically, tourism is also increasingly important as a cause for urbanization in many rural areas, particularly in developing countries including Thailand. Therefore, there are highly dynamic and interactive studies on the interaction between tourism and destination development. Tourism is not only to generate local economic, but also to change physical landscape of the area. Tourism has transformed an area into a tourist destination. However, overdevelopment of tourism industry can be resulted in no longer attract people to come. Therefore, understanding what tourists perceive as tourism attractiveness of the destination is important for guiding appropriate development. Regardless of taking sustainable tourism development concept into tourism planning consideration, ignoring to understand the holistic concept of tourism system can lead to the process of the perceived impacts of tourism on host communities. This is a conceptual paper attempts at raising an awareness of a destination attractiveness using tourist perceptions for sustainable tourism planning in rural Thailand. The conceptual framework is developed from existing theoretical and empirical research in the field of tourism studies. The paper has contributed to develop desired planning for sustainable tourism development in rural Thailand.
Purpose Community arts practice gives voice to a younger generation, who must be studied as part of the development process from commencement, to accomplish building sustainable destination development in the direction of future prosperity for the rural community. Design/methodology/approach This paper challenges a relatively weak critical practice of the community-based tourism (CBT) by introducing community arts methodologies as a research approach in the context of tourism, the opportunity is created to give voice to a younger generation that must also be included in the development aims of the CBT to achieve sustainable community tourism development. Findings The CBT aims to support access to quality participation in the development process. However, investment in education and building tourism entrepreneurs is not inclusive of the future generations beyond the original generation. Consideration of the desires and imaginations of the future generations must be part of the CBT project for tourism development sustainability. Building awareness of the fragility and value of tourist attractions and resources, in a younger generation that never experienced the original attractions of the traditional village, is critical to achieving the objectives of the CBT. Research limitations/implications The paper is not yet attempting to examine the empirical data of this research. Rather, it challenges current CBT research processes as having a narrow reach into a community. Practical implications Tourism developers and local communities should include an understanding of what directions and what opportunities the next and future generations will have to continue sustainable development. Including children’s imaginations into a community’s tourism development plans will benefit awareness of the present context and assist locals in forecasting the next stage of village development. The present tourism planners would then have a holistic vision for a design strategy sustaining rural livelihoods that acknowledge the limits of nature-based resources and cultural resources. Social implications Community arts research offers the possibility of inclusive participation of community members. Arts methodology attempts to articulate ideas in visual form, for the aim of discussion, reflection and realization of the desires and concerns of the community in terms of lifestyle, environment and cultural heritage, in preparation for the future generation taking control of tourism development. The process aims to impact future decisions effecting the course of tourism development in rural Thailand. Originality/value The paper discusses the potential contribution of community arts practice as a complementary tool by taking into account different aspects of sustainable tourism into CBT concept. The paper evaluates what has been missing in advancing our understanding of sustainable rural tourism development in Thailand. It fills the gaps with a methodological approach that gives voice to the local community. The purpose of this paper is to rethinking the ideology and approach of CBT to be inclusive of all demographics of society for the goal of achieving sustainable tourism and sustainable community development in Thailand context.
Article HistoryThis research is to propose the understanding of place identity and the awareness of the destination attractiveness as a way to continuous tourism system in rural Thailand. Particularly, the research focuses on understanding and describing a complex and dynamic issued in Mae Klang Luang attractiveness, a small village in Northern Thailand, for tourism activities from both sides of tourism system. For the local community to understand their tourism resources, images and the attractiveness is important to develop tourism industry. Moreover, the understanding of demand side perspective of attractiveness of these attributes helps the community to enhance their tourism industry in a more sustainability way. The attractiveness of a tourist destination encourages people to visit and spend time at the destination. Without the attractiveness, tourism does not exist at the first place. At the same time, without understanding of what tourist perceive as the attractiveness, tourism cannot be continuously developed. The importance of both sides' perceptions towards attractiveness helps rural tourism future development in more sustainable choices. It will help guiding the community to develop their tourism industry in the way continuing attracting people to the area at the same time not losing its own identity.Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature of sustainable tourism development in rural Thailand, particularly in Mae Klang Luang Community. The study proposes the understanding of place identity and the awareness of the destination attractiveness as an alternative way to sustaining tourism system of the community.
Community-Based Tourism (CBT) has been heavily promoted in Thailand, particularly in rural communities. Tourism transforms the natural and culturally significant attractions of rural communities into consumer products. Tourism development also makes a direct connection between tourism and the community. Therefore, before starting a tourism development project, the interests of local residents need to be investigated and allowances made for their inclusion. This paper introduces foresight tools, community arts, and a community goal-setting technique for putting the authority of future tourism development in the hands of the local community, which is appropriate for tourism development in rural Thailand. This study aims to give the local community useful tools to design their own future development by helping its members develop an understanding of what tourism is and how it impacts their community. A series of inclusive workshops was used to emphasize the need to understand the opportunities and repercussions of tourism as a community, what is at stake, and how important it is to participate in development projects. This methodology was chosen to advance the community members’ ability to generate ideas about what kind of tourism products the community has the potential to develop. Furthermore, it aims to get locals to understand that tourism development is more than just getting that development started. Reaching their future goals requires continuing their tourism activities. Therefore, the two workshops we held advocated community arts and community goal-setting techniques as foresight tools to empower communities to design their future and gave support to those communities to improve the quality of their participation in tourism.
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