DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY TOURIST INFORMATION SYSTEM OF THE UPPER CENTRAL PROVINCES 1

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) study the contextual information of Community-Based Tourism. 2) study the use of information technology for communication and public relations of Community-Based Tourism and 3) Develop a community-based tourism information system of the Upper Central Provinces Group 1. The research instrument was an In-depth interview form with a Semi-Structured, Focus Group, and a satisfaction survey. The findings were as follows: 1) The context of Community-Based Tourism of the Upper Central Provinces Group 1 showed that the physical data was a lowland where many rivers flowing through it. Socio-cultural data found that the important basis was the society, the Agricultural way (The socio-cultural data showed that it was an agricultural society), and in some communities, there were ethnic cultures such as Mon and Lao Wiang. The economic data showed that it was the agricultural economy and tourism economy. 2) The condition of using information technology for communication and public relations found that most of the tourism communities need information systems for communication and change their behavior to accommodate new technologies. Tourists want to be the perception and awareness of attractive tourist attractions by researching and asking base on reviewer's websites for decision-making. At present, the public relation is not a diverse and it is still unable to publicize the strengths in the community. 3) Development of information systems for community-based tourism in the Upper Central Provinces Group 1 has adopted the concept of SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) and it is corresponding development in the context such as text, graphics, multimedia in community tourism management with development that meets the needs of that area in accordance with the assessment at every step to verify the correctness of the needs of the local community. The results of the system evaluation revealed that data can be stored and disseminated well, but should use images that are consistent with community identity and the results of the overall system user satisfaction assessment were at the highest level. When considering each aspect found that the satisfaction was at a high level in all aspects, and sorting averages by highest to lowest were content, followed by usability, system, and design, respectively.