Community Participation in Tourism Planning in Thailand

In Thailand, tourism is an economic activity that plays a vital role in socio-economic development. Tourism on the island of Koh Samui, has significant effects on the local community. The island has faced a multitude of problems caused by an increase in tourism coupled with a lack of appropriate plans and strategies. To ameliorate the negative impacts of increasing visitors, a community participation approach has been applied in response to local problems and needs in tourism development with the aim of creating long term sustainability. This research aims to develop a community participatory planning framework for local tourism development. It has successfully described the process of socio-ecological interaction on local tourism development. But, the sustainability of the local tourism development depends on how these kinds of participatory process are formulated and implemented in the future to meet with local needs.