Research On The Perception And Attitude Of Tourism Influence Of Thai Village Residents

With the development of world economy,the tourism market has entered a period of rapid development.It has become the largest market of many countries in this world.Thailand has become a tourism-based country with its rich tourism resources and its attractive traditional culture.Thai government is actively engaged in community-based rural tourism and explores appropriate management models to promote the coordinated development of economic,social,cultural and environmental aspects of local communities.As a successful project,Thailand CBT(Community-Based Tourism)could provide a positive guide and experience for the development of rural tourism.Therefore,this article is based on Ban Mae Kampong Village,which joins the CBT project,to analyze the impacts of the development of the tourism industry and the perception and attitudes of the residents on this influence.The main contents of this article are:analyzing whether there are differences in the perception and attitudes of the residents in the Ban Mae Kampong Village between participants and non-participants;discussing whether there are differences in the evaluation of CBT project;to verify what factors affect the residents' perception and attitude.This article presents based on social exchange theory,tourism life cycle theory and the theory of sustainable development.Residents using the convenience sampling method for Ban Mae Kampong village has carried on through questionnaire survey,200 questionnaires were distributed,198 are valid questionnaires(99%).Through the mean value,T-test analysis the article has found that:(1)In terms of economic impact,the non-participants have higher degree of recognition of "the development of tourism could attract more investor" than the participants which shows that non-participants are more eager to join the tourism industry to gain benefits;(2)In terms of social impact,non-participants hold higher degree of recognition of "tourism development changed the way of life of locals"than participants since non-participants still retain the traditional way of life and tourism development makes them affected by the modern way of life;(3)In terms of cultural influence,compared with the participants,the non-participants think that it has better cultural exchange than participant due to non-participants still retain their own way of life which has a great attraction to the tourists;(4)In terms of environmental impact,non-participants hold higher degree of recognition of"tourism development increases local environmental pollution(such as noise,water pollution,air pollution,garbage,etc.)than participants,non-participants do not directly gain benefits from tourism industry but they still affected by environmental pollution which caused their dissatisfaction;(5)The evaluation of the CBT project,the majority of residents in the Ban Mae Kampong Village hold high evaluation on CBT project since the CBT not only provides new value for tourists but also improves the quality of life of the locals.However,since non-participants did not directly gain benefits from CBT project,their evaluation on CBT is relatively lower than participants;(6)the factors that affect residents' perception and attitude are mainly demographic characteristics and community attribution.On the factor of age,the results show that the elder residents' have more awareness of the tourism impact due to they have more experience of working and life.These experience could help them look farther about the development of tourism.However,from the aspect of time for living,the analysis shows that the longer they live,the more negative impacts would appear due to the development of tourism.These negative impacts are including economy,society,culture and environment,which is relevant to their community attribution.On the basis of analyzing the perception and attitudes of residents from Ban Mae Kampong Village,this article believes that the sustainable development of community tourism in Ban Mae Kampong Village can be strengthened from 3 aspects:government,non-governmental organization and residents themselves.(1)from the government's perspective,it should enhance channels of products selling,provide opportunities for non-participants to raise their income,protect the traditional houses and ancient buildings,strengthen the price control and village's environment.(2)From the perspective of non-governmental organization,it should expand the CBT project,provide training of foreign language and professional tourism performance for non-participants,enhance the services from locals,guide non-participants enter the tourism industry.(3)From the perspective of local residents,it should improve the facilities of transportation and construction,create local employment opportunities,control the number of foreign investors,protect tourism resources and local residents' interests,protect local traditional culture,integrate traditional lifestyles into tourism development to become new attractive elements tourism.