Community participation and social capital in tourism planning and management in a Thai context

Abstract

Community participation is now widely accepted as one important condition to achieve sustainable tourism development. The twelve aims of sustainable tourism determined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) emphasises the significance of destination community, for example, local control, local prosperity and community well-being. This is because local people are the effected groups who are most directly impacted by tourism. Based on literature, generally community participation in developing countries appears to be at a low level, particularly in participation in tourism planning and decision making which largely affects community participation in tourism operation and management, and receiving benefits. Literature also reveals several obstacles impeding community participation. Therefore, this research aims to explore how community participation works in Thailand. Although the tourism industry in Thailand has grown enormously and rapidly within the last five decades, benefits from tourism are mostly restricted to large enterprises while local people participate at low levels and gain very little despite being burdened with negative impacts of tourism in their respective communities. This research explored issues surrounding community participation in tourism in two case study communities; Koh Samet, a community at the ‘consolidation stage’ of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC), and Mae Kam Pong, a community at the ‘involvement’ stage of the TALC. Forms of community participation are assessed through three issues: participation in tourism planning and decision making; participation in tourism operation and management, and participation in benefits from tourism. Both qualitative methods (interviews, participant observation) and quantitative methods (surveys) were employed to collect data from two case study communities. ‘Social capital’ was a central concept utilised to examine community participation in tourism development. This concept has been widely used in many fields at the community level, for example public health and natural resource management, however, there are few studies exploring the relationship of social capital and community tourism development. The literature that does exist suggests that communities with high levels of social capital are more likely to have extensive community participation in tourism development. Findings from the Thai context show that community participation in tourism decision making is evidenced from the low to the high rungs of Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of citizen participation. This research explains what makes community participation different based on three themes. The first theme is that community participation in tourism development may be influenced by the social capital. The findings reveal that social capital is significantly associated with community participation in tourism development; however, social capital alone may not be sufficient to foster effective community participation in tourism development in these communities. It is argued that power relations and cultural factors appear to have a strong influence on community participation. The second theme is that communities at different stages of tourism development tend to have different levels of forms of participation. It seems promoting a high level of community participation may be easier when tourism is at the initial stage of development, but becomes more difficult as communities shift to later stages in the TALC. A process to monitor community participation over time is vitally required to ensure the balance of power within the community which appears to be a significant condition to achieve genuine community participation. Lastly, the levels and forms of community participation are likely to occur at a higher level at the communities where tourism is developed as community-based, rather than mass tourism. These findings may have important implications for ensuring genuine community participation in tourism development in other parts of Thailand, and perhaps the developing world.