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Participation of Local Community in Sustainable Tourism Development in Ban Ruammit, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand
Dissertation Abstract:
The study was conducted primarily to determine the type of participation of local community in sustainable tourism development in Ban Ruammit, Chiang Rai. The objectives were to (1) explain the political and sociocultural environments of local community, (2) describe the traditional agriculture in the context of sustainable tourism, (3) analyze the type and level of conflict and cooperation among the local people in sustainable tourism activities and how they manifest and manage it, (4) ascertain the perception of people on sustainable tourism activities and their contribution to sustainable development of local community, (5) determine the type of local community participation, (6) find relationship between selected variables and type of local community participation, and (7) identify the problems and obstacles of local community in their participation in sustainable tourism development.
Data were gathered using participant observation and questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing data.
Results showed that Ban Ruammit as a tribal village was in a sort of transition. Some villagers were still doing traditional swidden agriculture in the hill, others already set in permanent agriculture, while tourism has become a major source of income for some households. Ban Ruammit was part of the tourism system in Mae Yao Sub-district in which elephant trekking was the main attraction aside from tribal culture, hilly agriculture, and handicrafts as tourism products. Conflicts often occurred since the village was occupied by multi tribes. However, most of these conflicts were slight. Although there were conflicts, cooperation among them was moderately good. Generally, the local community had genuine type of participation (cooperation and empowerment) although there were few respondents who were still in pseudo type especially in assistencialism. Statistically, there was correlation between type of participation and length of residence, main occupation, interdependency, social sensitivity, satisfaction with the existing sustainable tourism, sharing in benefits, government assistance, level of conflict, and level of cooperation. Most of the problems in their participation to sustainable tourism development involved human resources management and social development.