The Development of Sustainable Cultural Tourism at Klong Yao Village of Baan Talad, Banwhay Sub-district, Wapipatum District, Mahasarakham Province

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) investigate the current situation of sustainable cultural tourism destination at Klong Yao village of Baan Talad and 2) propose the guideline of sustainable cultural tourism development based on people’s participation. Mixed method was utilized meanwhile the PAR (Participatory Action Research) and the AIC (Appreciation, Influence, Control) were used as a research techniques. The research instruments are 1) a set of questionnaire which was used for collecting data with 158 local people and 2) a structured interview which was used for collecting data with three community leaders. The result of this research revealed that the overview of the current tourism situation in five aspects of tourism management by local people standard criteria were at excellent level (3.37). In order to achieve that, the guideline of sustainable cultural tourism development are encouraging people participate in tourism management in all stages which are 1) participation in problem and the reason of problem finding 2) participation in planning and decision 3) participation in operation and 4) participation in benefit distribution. Moreover, people should set the meeting to indicate the tourism vision by themselves. It can unite the opinion of local people in tourism management. At the same time, it leads to tourism direction and goal identification by local people in the sustainable way relate to  the five aspects of the tourism management standard criteria which managed by Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization).