Tourism planning and policy in the greater Mekong subregion: local perspectives on development and participation, a study of ethnic communities in northern Thailand

Deposited with permission of the author. © 2008 Polladach Theerapappisit.This thesis investigates how ethnic communities perceive the problems and benefits of local participation in the tourism planning process. It also explores how inhabitants perceive the general impacts of tourism development. In particular, problems associated with tourism development in terms of its impacts on ethnic communities, as understood by the local residents involved, are identified. One factor suggested by the results is that such impacts are in part a result of both insufficient and ineffective participation of local residents in tourism planning. The thesis uses a comparative case study approach in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GIS), looking at three case study areas in Chiang Rai Province, Northern Thailand. The areas have each adopted different policy frameworks for planning tourism-`top-down', `intermediate and `bottom-up' approaches. In each case study area the research techniques used were those of policy document review, in-depth and informal interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaires, participant observation and projective picture making (with local residents as respondents), in order to examine local perspectives on participation in the planning process and on the overall impacts of tourism development. Open-ended data was content analysed under the four main aspects of economic, environmental, sociocultural and personal concerns. The findings in this thesis suggest that there is often a large gap between the tourism development goals desired by policymakers and those of local ethnic communities. The major finding was in the policy priorities desired by policymakers, namely to develop tourism resources with measurable economic `outcomes' rather than focusing on `processes' and `contents' in preserving or conserving local heritage resources. The overall findings from the `bottom-up' approach suggest somewhat stronger support for the role of mediators in tourism planning and more positive impacts of tourism development than was apparent in the case study areas in the `top-down' and `intermediate' approaches. Common to all case studies, though to different degrees, was, firstly, the emphasis of villagers on conserving landscape and cultural integrity, while wishing for future modern development and, secondly, a lack of consistent support from local government structures in developing efficient learning processes aimed at meaningful community involvement in the tourism planning process. The thesis concludes that insufficient and ineffective participation in tourism planning and conflicts of interest among tourism stakeholders, in particular between policymakers and local residents, are deeply embedded as problems in all three case study areas of ethnic communities in Northern Thailand. These problems need to be addressed with a new ethical framework in tourism planning and development for Thailand, and indeed for the subregion. Tourism in the Mekong riparian nations will not be a positive force unless the multi-level bodies have the wisdom to embrace or incorporate the values of local ethnic communities