Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to 1) study the current conditions of the strategies for the development of sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces, 2) study the factors affecting the strategies for the development of sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces and 3) propose proper strategies for the development of sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces. The approach of this research involved mixed methods. The quantitative research was conducted by studying a sample of 401 respondents who were tour entrepreneurs, tour officials and tourists in the 4 provinces of Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram, Surin and Si Sa Ket. The sample size was obtained by Krejcie and Morgans formula and it was selected by multi-stage sampling. The tool used for data collection was a 5 level rating scale questionnaire at a reliability of 0.98. The statistics used to analyze the data were percentage, mean, standard deviation and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The qualitative research was conducted by in-depth interviews from the 24 key informant, selected by purposive samplings who were experts including the governors and directors of the offices of provincial tourism. Others were from the private sector and included the Chairmen of the Provincial Chamber of Commerce, and tour entrepreneurs, whereas the peoples sector consisted of scholars and local leaders from the 4 provinces. The focus group discussions were held 2 groups, 12 informants of each group as same as the in-depth interviews in order to examine the proposed proper strategies and the data were analyzed by content analysis and interpretation.The research findings were as follows:1) The current conditions of the strategies for the development of sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces were found to be at a high level of the overall practices. Ranked from the highest to lowest, the strategies were (1) strategy for concrete cooperation of all three sectors namely the public sector, the private sector and the people sector ( = 4.46, S.D. = 0.74) (2) strategy for concrete connectivity of four Khmer civilization basins ( = 4.32, S.D. = 0.75) (3) strategy for sustainable income of all sectors ( = 4.09, S.D. = 0.68) and (4) strategy for sustainable tourism resources maintenance ( = 3.51, S.D. = 0.65). 2)The factors affecting the strategies for the development of sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces consisted of (1) tourism resources (β = 0.248) including the geographical characteristics of tourist attraction, linguistic identity, civilization and cultural inheritance (2) tourist characteristics (β = 0.216) including personal factors and behavioral factors, and (3) management development (β = 0.186) including development, management, cooperation between all sectors, marketing for tourism, and tourism resource preservation. These 3 factors explained 67.20 percent (R2 = 0.672) of the variation of the development strategy for sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces at a significance level of 0.05. The qualitative research revealed that factor of tourism resources had ready on infrastructure and language identity and factor of management development indicated the success of coordination. 3)The proper strategies for the development of sustainable tourism management along the Khmer civilization basins route in the lower northeastern provinces were synthesized from the research findings and the results of focus group discussions. They can be summarized as 5 key strategies (1) strategy for concrete connectivity of the four Khmer civilization basins through policy formulation for the development of the land and air transport, (2) strategy for concrete cooperation of all three sectors namely the public sector, the private sector and the peoples sector by refining the laws to promote cooperation between all sectors, (3) strategy for sustainable income of all sectors by establishing a community market for tourism and cultural inheritance, (4) strategy for sustainable income for all sectors by determining policies and plan to develop the communitys way of life and a data base or learning sites and (5) strategy for personnel development in all sectors by arranging training session for the entrepreneurs and educational institutes. All of the relevant agencies integrated all their strategies based on the network organizations thus creating sustainable participation