Impacts of Tourism Development on Coastal Communities in Cha-am Beach, the Gulf of Thailand, through Analysis of Local Perceptions

Abstract

Coastal tourism development can appropriately contribute to the livelihood of the community. To date, few studies have been conducted on the impacts of tourism development on the coastal communities in Thailand. This study assessed these impacts through the analysis of local perceptions based on four criteria of tourism development—the economic, environmental, social, and cultural impacts—using a five-point Likert scale. A survey of 116 households (HHs) was conducted at Cha-am Beach in the Gulf of Thailand. We found that the impacts of tourism development on coastal communities were 3.13 ± 1.02 (± refers to standard deviation) for social impact and 2.85 ± 1.03 for economic impact, indicating that tourism development had neutral and positive impacts. However, impacts on the other two criteria were below the average scores, indicating that tourism development had a negative impact on the local environment (2.50 ± 1.05) and local culture (2.41 ± 0.95). For overall impacts, the average score was 2.72 ± 1.02, indicating the coastal communities accepted tourism development in their communities. Nevertheless, as the overall score of tourism development was still far below the maximum point of 5, more efforts by the government as well as the private sector are needed to protect the local culture and coastal communities while improving the positive impacts on economic development and social integrity.