Participatory Development of Community-Based Textile Products to Promote Tourism in Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Chiang Mai Province possesses strong cultural capital in textiles and fabric production. However, community-based textile and fabric products have not yet been able to drive tourism effectively. This limitation is primarily attributed to the lack of an integrated development framework that translates community identity into tangible forms, the inability of lifestyle products to adequately respond to the needs of contemporary consumers, and the lack of mechanisms for building textile production networks that systematically link product development processes. Consequently, the capacity of local communities to generate value-added and income from textile and fabric products remains constrained. This research aimed to: 1) develop networks of community enterprises producing handwoven textile products within tourism communities in Chiang Mai Province; 2) develop prototype handwoven textile products to upgrade community-based products; and 3) examine the acceptance of target consumer groups toward the developed product prototypes.
Methods: The sample groups consisted of: 1) representatives from target communities selected through purposive sampling, comprising three communities with ten participants each (a total of thirty participants); 2) fifteen community representatives involved in selecting product design drafts for prototype development; and 3) four hundred consumers for market testing. Research instruments included focus group discussion records and market testing questionnaires. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, while quantitative data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics, including percentages, means, and standard deviations.
Results: The study revealed that the development of community enterprise networks through participatory workshops facilitated collective learning and knowledge exchange across three key dimensions: learning and development, production, and marketing. This process enhances experiential knowledge and specific handweaving techniques, which can be applied to the context of each community and sustainably improve group management. For the product prototypes, community-designed handwoven textiles were tailored into contemporary forms using a storytelling approach to convey community identity and collaborative relationships within the enterprise network. Market testing with target consumers indicated that the prototypes are highly marketable across all aspects of the marketing mix: product, price, promotion, and distribution channels. This reflects the potential for community textile products to be commercially scaled up, supporting tourism and creating stable and sustainable income for communities in Chiang Mai Province.
Conclusions: Participatory development processes are an important mechanism for bridging cultural capital, local knowledge, and production networks to create textile products that effectively reflect community identity. The developed product prototypes received high levels of acceptance from consumers in all aspects, reflecting their potential to upgrade community products for commercial applications and to promote community-based tourism through textile products.