Communication for Creative Tourism Development through Community Participation in Phetchaburi Province

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to study the potential of the communities in Phetchaburi province that can be developed to create added value and promote creative tourism in Phetchaburi province, 2) to study the method of communication and the use of mass media in the communities in order to develop the creative tourism in Phetchaburi province, and 3) to develop a framework for community participatory communication in order to promote the creative tourism development in Phetchaburi province. This research was a qualitative research using documentary research method, non-participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and group discussions. The data were collected from 30 people who involved with the tourism in the community.They were the key informants of community tourism management in Phetchaburi Province, consisting of 3 groups: representatives from government agencies, representatives from private tourism operators, and representatives from local communities. The results of this research were as follows: 1) The potential of the community that could be developed to create added value and promote creative tourism in Phetchaburi province consisted of 3 parts which were (1) The 4 key components of the community potential including natural resources and culture, community organization, management and learning, (2) community potential analysis on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and obstacles - it was found that the community had beautiful natural resources, convenient routes to access the community, the unique local arts and culture, and the community leaders were strong and they played an important role in tourism development, and (3) creating value-added of the community- it was found that the tourism promotion committee has been established in which the people in the community were involved in the formulation of tourism promotion plans, creating value-added as cultural operators of the community, and creating community cultural maps to help promote tourism. 2) Community communication and media used for creative tourism development in Phetchaburi province consisted of 3 parts which were (1) the elements of communication including sender, message, media, and receiver, (2) the form of communication including informal two-way communication, formal two-way communication, informal one-way communication, and participatory communication, (3) the use of community media including personal media, traditional media, specialized media, mass media, and internet media. 3) Guidelines for participatory communication in the community for creative tourism development in Phetchaburi province consisted of 4 basic factors including, natural resources and culture, community organization, management, and learning. Those factors had been driven by communication elements, including the messenger, the media and the receiver, in order to gain the potential of the community with 3 main agencies as the driving mechanism, namely the community, government agencies, and the private sector under participatory communication, which was considered the heart of the important mechanism driving the conceptual framework by the name "Tao Tan Model"