Kusuma Swangpun. The readiness of local people for ecotourism development a case study Kohsirae community Amphurmuang Phuket province . Master's Degree(Appropriate Technology for Resources and Environmental Development). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2004.
The readiness of local people for ecotourism development a case study Kohsirae community Amphurmuang Phuket province
Abstract:
The aim of this research was to study local people readiness for development of the Sirae marine
community for ecotourism. Questionnaires were used as the major tool in for data collection from local
people. They were distributed among a sample of 195 community members. Furthermore, indepth interviews
were employed to collect additional information from 17 samples that were mainly state officials and private
staff from the local area. The collected data were then quantitatively processed using the commercial software
package SPSS for Windows Version 7.5. The statistics used included percentage, minimum, maximum,
arithmetic average, and standard deviation, as well as analytical tools such as covariance analysis, multiple
classification analysis, and descriptive quality analysis.
It was found that local people were moderately ready for management of tourism resources and
facilities, protection and preservation of the environment, arrangement of activities and services for tourists.
Nevertheless, they were not very willing to participate in administration of ecotourism. With statistical
significance, the affecting factor on people readiness for protection and preservation of the environment was
the residential period of local people. However, there were no factors that significantly contributed to people
readiness for administration of tourism resources and convenience facilities, or people readiness for
arrangement of activities and services for tourists.
The results from this research suggest that to ensure people willingness to participate in any future
ecotourism development, appropriate attitudes for tourism administration should be established among the
local people. Tourism facilities within the community need to be restored or improved to support tourism
operation. In addition, local people should be provided with knowledge about protection and preservation of
the community environment. There should also be training programs to provide knowledge and skills on
arrangement of activities and services for tourists. Knowledge about ecotourism should be provided to the
local people through easily accessible media such as television sets, neighbors, radios, and family members.
Finally, involvement of the local people, according to their individual skills, local cultural interests and
historical tourist activities should be encouraged.