THE EVALUATION OF HAPPINESS FROM COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM BY LOCAL PEOPLE LIVING IN TOURISM COMMUNITY

Abstract

     The objective of this research is to evaluate the happiness of communities by local people living in tourism communities. The population of this study include 10 communities all over the Kingdom of Thailand. The researcher used Taro Yamane theory to stipulate the sample size equal to 2,262 local people and utilized the multistage stage sampling technique. In this research used questionnaire that asked the opinion of the happiness of community tourism. To analyze the finding, the researcher uses the happiness indicator referable to Gross National Happiness (GNH) indicator. The statistics used in this research is frequency distribution, percentage, mean and standard deviation, t-test and F-test. The finding of the happiness for communities found out that the local people who leave in tourist area have happiness at a high level (the happiness average equal to 7.47) and breakdown into subjective well-being (SWB) and objective well-being (OWB) at the high level (SWB = 7.59, OWB = 7.24). If we examine in the specific part, found out that the people who leave in tourist area have happiness at the high level which is good governance (the happiness average equal to 7.84). On the other hand, happiness at less level which is the balance of time spending (the happiness average equal to 6.64).  The results of comparison between 10 communities are the Koh Phitak community, Chomphon province that has the highest happiness level (the average happiness level equal to 8.73), but the Thum Suea community, Petchburi province has the lowest happiness level (the average happiness level equal to 6.49).