Abstract
Since the 1990s, sustainable tourism development has gained attention and been adopted as a policy and planning approach by many governments around the world. However, while the concept of sustainable tourism development is widely considered integral to successful tourism development, there remain a range of problems which mitigate against positive sustainable tourism development outcomes. These include a lack of clear understanding of the key stakeholders in implementing sustainable tourism development and secondly, not all stakeholders have the same level of interest in sustainable tourism development and may be less active or not active at all. An essential element for sustainable tourism development in any tourist destination is the participation of active stakeholders and their collaborations. Among them, the tour guides play a major role but seem not to be paid attention as much as other stakeholders like the authorities, travel agencies or tourists. This paper aims at exploring the tour guides’s point of view on sustainable tourism. The primary data collection involved in-depth interviews undertaken with 10 tour guides and data were analyzed using content analysis. From the tour guide’s viewpoint, it seems like there has not been enough care and activities from other stakeholders concerning sustainable tourism. The result also shows the tour guides’s sound awareness of sustainable tourism and their environmental friendly behaviors.
Highlights
Tourism is considered a valuable economic development opportunity for many countries, yet the expansion of tourism worldwide has led to emerging concern about its negative impacts on host environments (Berrittella, Bigano, Roson, & Tol, 2006; Choi & Sirakaya, 2006)
The objectives of this study are to identify the key tourism stakeholders in implementing sustainable tourism development and to provide a synthesis of the similarity and differences in the characteristics of the tourism stakeholders found in two rural towns of Thailand
The findings revealed a link between importance and power attribute in implementing sustainable tourism development
Summary
Tourism is considered a valuable economic development opportunity for many countries, yet the expansion of tourism worldwide has led to emerging concern about its negative impacts on host environments (Berrittella, Bigano, Roson, & Tol, 2006; Choi & Sirakaya, 2006). While the concept of sustainable tourism development is widely considered integral to successful tourism development, including the paper’s focus, the development of Nong Mae Na and Nen-Piem community, Thailand, there remain a range of problems which mitigate against positive sustainable tourism development outcomes. These include a lack of clear understanding of the key stakeholders in implementing sustainable tourism development and secondly, not all stakeholders have the same level of interest in sustainable tourism development and may be less active or not active at all. In order to achieve this, the thesis is underpinned by theories derived from the areas of sustainable tourism development and stakeholders
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