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Perception of the Impacts of Nature Tourism Development and Planning in Dong Hua Sao Protected Area, Lao PDR
Abstract:
The study assessed the opportunities for outdoor recreation development in the Dong Hua Sao Protected Area (DHSPA) in Champasak Province, Southern Lao PDR. It involved the assessment of the natural resources; the perception of residents toward sociocultural, economic, and physical impacts: and the visitors' preferred activities and facilities.
Findings revealed that the perception of the residents in the study site was quite similar with the results of other studies. Residents of DHSPD believed that tourism will bring beneficial changes to their community's social, economic, and physical environments. Moreover, they gave higher priorities to issues related to employment and participation in cultural practices for tourism since these will lead to employment benefits. They also felt that deviant social activities should be viewed as one of the important criteria in judging the tourism's impacts. These implied that the residents were sensitive to the future impacts will be caused by tourism and were able to judge the nature of impacts in relation to their needs and wants.
The analysis of the visitor's opinions revealed that they were attracted to the protected area or park because of its ude for sightseeing, bird and wildlife watching, and nature education resources. Visitors were concerned with the level of development and have suggested that it should be confined to nature tourism, with traditional houses and natural resort that would blend well with the natural environment. This implied that tourism should be developed without causing damages to the natural and cultural resources of the area.
A recreation development plan has been proposed based on the assessment of the resources and analysis of the attitude of residents attitude around the DHSPA as well as the recreation sites. The study recommend to entitle the plan for DHSPA as "Forest Water Aesthetics and Adventure Touring."