Strategic Policy Options for Enhancement of National Park and Local Community Linkage in Tourism Management of Thai National Parks

Abstract

     This policy research is focused on producing policy guidelines to enhance local community involvement in tourism management and services in national parks. The research was carried out by lessons learnt from communities currently involved in tourism within 4 national parks. These were Ban Mae Klang Luang with Doi Inthanon National Park, Ban Khao Lek with Chalerm Rattankosin National Park, Ban Wang Lung in Khao Luang National Park, and Tambon Krung Ching in Khao Luang and Khao Nan National Parks. Data collection and analysis were done by in-depth interview and questionnaires with SWOT and Cluster analysis. The strengths that made community based tourism (CBT) in national parks successful were complied into 4 aspects: 1) Local involvement -support from national parks particularly in providing opportunities for local communities in national park tourism, support form outside organizations, local organization in charge of tourism administrative management; 2) national and cultural resources conservation - local awareness in natural resource conservation which likely to come about when local people realized benefit gained from tourism in national parks; 3) social and economics - the willingness of local people to involve in tourism and learn tourism service skills, good social relations amongst local people and strong leadership as well as good contact with tour operators; and 4) tourism experiences - the diverse of tourism experiences for visitors ranging from natural to cultural experiences. The policy instruments that local communities perceived as important to the success of CBT in national parks were self regulatory, partnerships, institutional arrangement, building of local awareness in conservation, and local skill development in tourism management and services. Four strategies were proposed as follows: 1) the enhancement of opportunities for local involvement in national park tourism by setting up of effective local organization in charge of CBT, strengthening cooperation amongst communities around national parks to attract external supports, and establishing joint management system of CBT in national parks, 2) the improvement of natural resource conservation in national parks by setting up participatory monitoring of tourism impacts, and establishing collaborative conservation actions amongst stakeholders from tourism revenues, 3) enhancement of social and economic development by improving benefits distribution mechanisms from national park tourism to local economy and building up local capacity of needed skills in CBT business, 4) fostering low impact tourism in national parks by developing and disseminating code of conducts for visitors and tour operators, and implementing interpretation programs in national parks.