Cultural tourism destination development of Nakhon Si Thammarat province

Abstract

This study aims to create a model for cultural tourism destination development focusing on stakeholder participation. It was revealed that there are a great number of tourism destinations confronted with inefficiency in accommodating tourists, an insufficiency in the essential quality of tourism products and services, an increase in the overcrowding of tourists, and the deterioration of the landscape and the physical features in a tourism destination. Although there are a number of researches on tourism destination, the majority of the studies focus on the image, the competencies for competitiveness, and the evaluation of tourism destination. Previous research has focused mainly on general types of tourism destinations, with only limited research on cultural tourism destination development.

This study therefore aims to develop a model for cultural tourism destination development focusing on stakeholder participation. The study comprises three main research questions: 1) What is the capacity of cultural tourism destination? 2) What are the roles of stakeholders in the cultural tourism destination development? 3) What is the cultural tourism destination development model? To address these research questions, mixed methods using quantitative and qualitative research techniques were employed. The quantitative research method was applied to study the capacity of cultural tourism destination, in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, the selected area of this research. The data were collected from 580 tourists who completed the questionnaire in Nakhon Si Thammarat using a convenient sampling technique. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was then utilized to analyze the data. The qualitative research method was performed to study the role of stakeholder participation in the development of cultural tourism destination. In addition, an indepth interview was conducted with the stakeholders by using the purposive and snowball sampling methods to develop the model for cultural tourism destination development. A similar approach, in-depth interviewing using the purposive method, was then performed by the tourism academics to confirm the cultural tourism destination development model.

The study result highlights that a model for cultural tourism destination development must consist of three important procedures. The first step is to study the cultural tourism destination components including attractions, accommodations, accessibilities, amenities, activities, people, resident hospitality and conservation/ preservation. The second step is to study the role of stakeholder participation in the development of cultural tourism destination. The stakeholders in this study include the local government, tourism entrepreneurs, and community representative. The stakeholder participation consists of four procedures: First, decision-making, which comprises initial decision, on-going decision, and operational decision. Second, implementation participation includes resource contributions, participation by administration and coordination, and enlistment in programs. Third, benefit participation includes material benefit, social benefit, and personal benefit. Fourth, evaluation participation. The final step is to create the success factors for the cultural tourism destination development, which is conscious mind, coordination and cooperation, local government support, local people participation and good leadership. The conscious mind is the most important factor consisting of host conscious mind and tourist conscious mind.