Sustainable Tourism Development: A Case Study of Patong Beach Kathu District Phuket Province

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the identity of Patong Beach, Kathu District Phuket in terms of the cooperation between the public and private sectors including the civil society for the sustainable tourism development, and the management process of tourism and tourism-related activities in correspondence with the sustainable practices in order to propose the measures to develop and manage the tourism of Patong Beach, Kathu District Phuket. This study is the qualitative study which employs the in-depth interview as the research tool. The interview is conducted with interviewees from the public and private sectors. The result is appropriately formed in which is ensured by the interviewees. The researcher provides and arranges the opinion sharing via the group discussion. The result shows that the organizations attempt to give support and develop the tourism however lack the effective coordination and cooperation between the sectors and no mechanisms to promote the effective communication between the organizations. The proper working platform is the cooperative work from three organizations which are the public and private sectors, and the civil society. The public sector is still a key player in working meanwhile the private sector and civil society plays the role of base which the state agencies use for decision making. The significance of this platform is the core model which implements the Sufficiency Economy by using three pillars and two conditions in order to understand the basis of cooperative working and the sustainable tourism development.