Thais' Coping with Sociocultural Impacts of Tourism Development

Abstract

Theravada Buddhism is the religion of Thailand and is acknowledged by a majority of population underpinning the values of the dominant group and tending to effect non-dominant groups. Therefore, it is undoubted that Buddhism has a strong influence on the everyday life of Thai people and their society and culture. In addition, Buddhism has influenced Thai society for centuries in terms of acceptance and kindness towards fellow people in order to maintain harmony in the human race. However, how much the influence of Buddhism is actually perceived and functioned in the everyday life of Thai people and the difference of Thai culture from other cultural groups is little understood. A constructivist paradigm with semi-structured interviews was employed. This paper analyses avoidance of confrontation as one of the characteristics of the Thai personality that is different to Western societies because Thai people avoid expressions of anger, displeasure and criticism while Westerners are perceived as more confrontational. These mild manners of Thai people bring a certain degree of harmony to their society. In this paper, Buddha's teaching and the Thai personality, not least avoidance of confrontation, underpins the reflection on how Thai people respond to sociocultural changes. This paper discuss why local people accept tourism as well as why they apparently attribute blame elsewhere. In addition, coping strategies, in terms of Thai psychology, how they respond to the sociocultural impacts of tourism is examined at the end.