The Youth Development Guideline as a Communicator for Ethnic Tourism Promotion in Mae Chan District, Chiang Rai Province

Abstract

This research aimed 1) to explore the ethnic tourism situation of Pa Tueng community, Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai province and 2) to study the youth development guideline as a communicator for ethnic tourism promotion of Pa Tueng, Mae Chan District, Chiang Rai Province by using the qualitative research methodology through document analysis and in-depth interview. The defined data providers were communications and tourism industry experts, community leaders and tourism operators with observation. The results could be summarized as follow; Context of ethnic tourism situation, it was found that most of tourists were Westerners and Taiwanese tourists rather than Thais. Both groups were targeted at natural tourism and ethnic tourism. Because of the diversity of ethnic groups, there were differences in culture, tradition and ethnicity. The foreign tourists came for both staying and not staying overnight through the tour companies and by themselves in a similar proportion while Thai tourists came by themselves. Most of them visited the area on the way to another destination. The problems of ethnic tourism were The tourists do not intend to travel but the only way is through, the changing of conventional ways of life, tradition and culture of each ethnic group due to the modernization that poured into the community and lacking of unique identity building of each ethnicity. Moreover, it was found that there was similar ethnic tourism management and lacked of advertising and public relations to make it a renowned tourist attraction by the government and local people. The youth development guideline as a communicator for ethnic tourism is to develop young people to recognize the ethnic identity that should be preserved. Improve communication skills. Improve the skills of content production and dissemination. Improve the skills of community communicators. And develop other skills such as English or Chinese.