Image Communication and Public Participation in the Promotion of Sustainable Tourism of Chanthaboon Waterfront Community, Chanthaburi

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the image communication and public participation of Chanthaboon Waterfront Community in Chanthaburi province, for sustainable tourism and to explore the approaches for communicating image and public participation process of the community in collaboration with other organizations. Data were obtained through document analysis and in-depth interviews with nine key informants whose work were related to image communication and the development of tourism in the community. The result revealed that the image communication for tourism promotion was the presentation of five image of the community including architecture, art, religion, culture and tradition, and local living through word of mouth spread by people in the community and a variety of communication channels. Factors of tourism promotion included public participation and the establishment of the community’s goals, the determination of policy by community leaders together with community members, and systematic tourism management.