Abstract:
To study the tourism development and the impact of tourism on landuse and environment of Ko Samui, and also, this study is aimed to propose the guidelines and measures to alleviate negative impacts within the study area. The study found out 4 periods of tourism development of Ko Samui ; the first period was before the year 1970 ; the second was between the years 1970-1987 ; the third was between the years 1982-1986 ; and the last was between the years 1987 to present. The tourism development in Ko Samui has given rise to landuse expansion in the form of bangalows and hotels, while the expansion of the real estate that make use of tourism campaign spot during the fourth period. The impact can be classified into 4 catagories : physical impact, i.e. soil, water and air resources ; ecological impact, i.e., living things on land and living things in water ; the impact on human use values, i.e. landuse and infrastructure developmetn ; and the impact on quality of life values, i.e. economic and social conditions, aesthetic, and recreation. The positive impacts are only the human use values and quality of life values, while the negative impacts happen in every aspect of landuse. The areas with the negative impacts are the shorelines around Ko Samui, especially the area in the east of the island such as Chaweng, Lamai where are the important sources of tourism. The area with less negative impact are in the north of the island such as Maenam, Bangrak, Bophut and Choengmon. The inner land with mountains, forest, swamps, marshes, mangrove are also impacted by the tourism development. The negative impact are very high in three categories. They are landuse, infrastructures, economic and social conditions. According to Butter, Samui's tourism development is now at the stage of consolidation. If the development is not controlled, it will be develop to stage of stagnation and rejurenation respectively. To alleviate and minimize the negative impact, the following measures are propose : i) zoning the area into tourism development area : limit of tourism development area ; conservation area and preservation area. ii) access control. For infrastructure is suggested to be improved by a concerning organization. the infrastructure are road system, waste collection, waste water treatment and water supply system.