Abstract:
The villagers in Baan Kiriwong lead a peaceful lifestyle and tend to treat one another like family members. Because of these unique characteristics, the community has overcome a number of natural disasters which makes it being regarded as a strong community. The main occupation of the residents is working in mixed fruit orchards. During non-harvest seasons, they form occupational groups based on the resources of the community. Meanwhile, to generate additional income, some of the residents have transformed their houses into homestays, following the community model of managing an ecotourism business. As a result of these efforts, the village has been a recipient of the Thailand Tourism Awards. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the physical characteristics of these homestays to better understand the stay patterns and the optimal way to transform houses into homestays, as well as to explore the principles of homestay management and the community participation process. The findings revealed that the main factor that empowered this village to achieve sustainable ecotourism management was the shared cooperation of community leaders, villagers and community enterprises. Many of the villagers have transformed their houses into homestays by demarking their compound to ensure the privacy and comfort of the host, his/her family members and visitors. Various activities are arranged to satisfy visitors interests such as those organized by community enterprises, involving the local lifestyle and including local nature trails. The community leaders collaborate with the government sector, the private sector or other development organizations and villagers to engender these activities. Interdependence in the community has been the key to successful collaboration between concerned sectors. It can be concluded that sustainable ecotourism depends on the following factors: 1) community identity, 2) community ownership, 3) integration of homestay and tourist activities and 4) tourists conscience. The process of sustainable management is achieved through cooperation from various parties. However, the first step to this success is that the villagers must clearly understand this development plan as they are the key factor contributing to the strength and the sustainable development of the Kiriwong community.