Abstract
A Study of Stakeholder Collaboration and Locally-Based Tourism
Development: Case Studies of Rural Communities, Thailand
Locally-based tourism (LBT) is introduced as a viable tool for the sustainable
development of tourist destination communities. Despite having multiple
definitions, LBT has well defined characteristics: small-scale, gradual growth
tourism with a high degree of community participation in its development process.
The underlying principle of LBT is that the distribution of socio-economic benefits
among local community residents directly varies with the degree of communityparticipation in tourism development. In developing countries, however, a numberof challenges remain in implementing the principles of LBT, including factors
which limit local participation in LBT development processes and a lack of
capabilities to develop tourism successfully at the local community level.
In this research, inter-organizational collaboration is examined to determine how
to increase the degree of community participation and the distribution ofsocio-economic benefits among local people. The objectives of this research are
fourfold: (1) to examine the process of stakeholder collaboration in thedevelopment of LBT; (2) to identify the degree of community participation inpolicy-making processes and the sharing of economic benefits from thecollaborative LBT development; (3) to identify the mechanisms which facilitate thecollaboration; and (4) to evaluate the contributions of the collaborative LBT projectto the sustainable development in the community. The case study approach ischosen as a research methodology. Three LBT projects in rural communities inThailand are chosen as case studies. The data collection tools include key
participant interviews, a questionnaire survey and observation.
The major findings are as follows. First, the process of stakeholder collaboration
in a LBT project is divided into three stages: (1) problem-setting stage; (2)planning stage; and (3) implementation stage. Second, collaboration between thecore and participant organizations contributes to the level of community
participation in the LBT project by: (1) the involvement of community residents as
the key stakeholders and the offering of capability building programs from the
problem-setting stage increased the degree of community participation in thepolicy-making process; and (2) the pooling of resources of the participant
stakeholders contributed to the successful development of tourism supply. However,these steps do not guarantee a high degree of community participation in benefit
sharing unless the tourism activities are diversified and well-integrated into the
local economy and community residents have been empowered to participate intourism-related activities. Third, the mechanisms which promote collaboration in
an LBT project are: (1) a core organization; (2) capability building programs; (3) agood communication infrastructure; and (4) third party mediators. Fourth,collaborative LBT leads to sustainable development which results in: (1)broad-based distribution of economic benefits to community residents; (2) theconservation of tourism resources; (3) improvement of the quality of life; and (4)the building of local capabilities for tourism management, only if it remains
small-scale, with gradual growth and a high degree of community participation in
the policy-making process and benefit sharing. However, in order to ensure thesedesirable conditions will endure over time, top-down interventions may benecessary in certain areas, such as the development and enforcement ofenvironmental codes, in addition to the systematic empowerment of organizations
at the local level.