Economic Impacts of Community Based Tourism in Bang Sa Kao Subdistrict, Laem Sing District, Chanthaburi Province

Abstract

          The purposes of this study were : to survey the economic impacts from community based tourism at Bang Sa Kao Subdistrict, Laem Sing District, Chanthaburi Province and to investigate the problems and solutions from the economics impacts of community based tourism at Bang Sa Kao Subdistrict, Laem Sing District, Chanthaburi Province. The samples were 262 households in Bang Sa Kao Subdistrict and 6community leaders. The research instruments employed in the study were: questionnaires and interviews. The descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation.

            The results revealed that the positive economic impacts from community based tourism at Bang Sa Kao Subdistrict, Laem Sing District, Chanthaburi Province had a high level. The highest mean score is the type of tourism that boosted the investments in various fields for tourism capacity and services, followed by the tourism that provided more job opportunities among villagers. The negative economic impacts of tourism, the overall statistic data was at a moderate level. The highest mean score is the problems of product pricing and the higher cost of living in the local community; as resulted by the tourism in the community followed by tourism causing higher villagers’ expenses in the community respectively, Moreover, for the problems and solutions, it showed that the problem caused by the economic impacts of tourism is the higher prices of community goods and services. Additionally, the distribution of tourism income-which seemed to be the unpredictable income in the community-was not equally distributed. The suggested solutions are as follows: 1) controlling the prices of goods and services, and having clear price tags, especially at the local shops, 2) encouraging people in the community to participate in community-based tourism management, 3) establishing a community shop or community product distribution center, 4) promoting the production of tourism products and services by the community and 5) promoting the public relations for community-based tourism in Bang Sa Kao Subdistrict.