Guidelines to Promote Community-based Cultural Tourism of the Tai Dam Community, Ban Don Subdistrict, U–thong District, Suphan Buri Province

Abstract

This paper presents the guidelines to promote tourism in Tai Dam community, Ban Don Subdistrict, U–thong District, Suphan Buri Province. This community maintains strong Tai Dam cultural identity. A quantitative research was conducted by using a set of questionnaire as a tool to collect data through simple random sampling. The questions explored cultural resources and practices upheld in the community and may potentially be used in the management of community-based tourism.

The survey found that most people still recognized and upheld cultural resources and practices at the intermediate and high level, which is measured from the mean from the level of 3. 41 up. Data analysis was done by testing the relationship with Chi– Square, showing the close relationship between community’s upholding cultural resources and practices with the potential use of cultural capital in tourism. This clearly reflects that the community is ready to manage cultural sites for tourism. There should then be guidelines to promote community-based cultural tourism through assessing the potential of cultural resources and identifying tourism links with other cultural attractions in the nearby area. The sub-categories of cultural tourism that should be promoted include ethnic tourism, folklore tourism and historical tourism.