Author(s)

P. Somnuek

Abstract

This study aimed to find (1) the establishment of a Community-based tourism (CBT) network in Ban Sai Moon and Ban Phosri in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, and (2) an assessment of the established CBT network developed by the two communities. In this study, participatory action research and data derived from a total of 60 samples (30 from tourism representatives in the two communities and 30 from visitors), chosen by simple random sampling, were applied for the collection of data. Methods applied for data analysis included: focus group discussion, participatory observation, and KM. The findings demonstrated that different strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) were found in the two communities, based on the community context, community member life- styles, and tourism attractions. These differences could be appropriately utilized as individual/unique tourism resources providing CBT activities and participatory CBT itineraries. Secondly, community networking management comprised the following steps: studying internal community contexts and conditions, searching for village leaders, promoting an awareness of associations and networks, devel- oping activities and relationship levels, enhancing information systems, promoting cognitive processes among networks, summarizing lessons learned, and expanding the CBT networks. Lastly, regarding the strength assessment, it was indicated that the former management focused on individual management, resulting in poor negotiation power to present diversified and interesting tourism programs for visitors. Conversely, a community organization was established as a network information center to manage tourism resources and connect tourism and community development appropriately. Therefore, villagers could employ their resources to show a variety of tourism services, resulting in increased benefits in the areas.

Keywords

community-based tourism (CBT), development of networking patterns, Phosri community, Saimoon community, transboundary tourism management.