THAILAND'S TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Abstract

                This research is aimed to 1) study Thailand’s sustainable tourism development during B.E. 2558-2560, and 2) propose Thailand’s sustainable tourism development guidelines. The study is based on a qualitative research method. The research tool is an in-depth interview conducted with 17 individuals who are administrators, officers, and those participated in tourism industry from both public and private sectors. The analysis methods include content analysis, data categorization, and triangulation. The results showed that 1) Thailand’s sustainable tourism development during B.E. 2558-2560 is rested upon 6 important development principles, saying, 1) tourism development dimension, the worthily and efficient use of tourism resources based on sustainable concept, 2) maintenance of sustainable ecological system dimension, relying on natural principle, 3) tourism business development dimension, including innovation, technology, regulations, legislation, environmental standard, and human resource development, 4) tourism market development dimension, including service development in which customers or tourists are free to choose their consumption or services, 5) community participation dimension, focusing on thoroughgoing participation from local people, and 6) consciousness development dimension, development of consciousness toward tourism resources and environmental preservation. 2) Thailand’s tourism sustainable development guidelines include 1) sustainable tourism management, in which there are conscious tourism management, knowledge building and providing tourism management, community participated tourism management in terms of decision, activity, and equal benefits, 2) development and improvement of tourism management, in which there are the adjustment of governmental organization structure, the Pracharat concept of co-operation derived from public, private, and people sectors, 3) the participative tourism management, a community-based concept, and 4) competitiveness development by protecting and solving the degeneration of tourism destination, development promotion on new tourism attraction, development of special tourism zone with neighboring areas or countries, and promotion of tourism business expansion into foreign market.