POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES AND ONLINE MARKETING PROMOTION FOR COMMUNITY-BASED ECOTOURISM ATTRACTIONS IN NAN PROVINCE

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to examine the potential of community-based eco-tourism attractions in Nan province; (2) to study and develop a prototype of online marketing support system of community-based eco-tourism attractions in Nan province via cloud application; and (3) to recommend guidelines for potential development and online marketing promotion of community-based eco-tourism attractions in Nan province. The two selected research areas in Nan province were Maneepruek village in Thung Chang district, and Huaypaan village in Chiang Klang district, Nan province. This study was a mixed method research involving qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. In qualitative study, the key research informants were 43 state sector administrators, private sector administrators, community leaders, and academics who were interviewed and participated in small group discussion. In quantitative study, an evaluation form to assess the potential of community-based eco-tourism attractions, adapted from that of the Department of Tourism, was used to collect data from 200 eco-tourists during January – April 2018. Quantitative data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics; while qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis.

The research results were as follows: (1) regarding the results of assessing potential attributes of community-based ecotourism attractions in the two villages, it was found that both communities were natural areas with some eco-tourism development and received a rating mean of good level (3 stars); (2) regarding the results of requirement analysis of online marketing support system for community-based eco-tourism attractions, it was found that the developed prototype was relevant to the requirement on contents, functions, and classification of main attributes; also, this prototype could be extended to other community-based ecotourism attractions in the future; and (3) the findings from this research led to the of community-based eco-tourism attractions of the two communities that were research areas as follows: the study of historical background and identities of the village; the development of interpreting method and interpreting activities in community-based eco-tourism attractions; the formulation of sustainable natural resources preservation plan; the determination of capacity for supporting tourists; the creation of tourist activities; the village’s infrastructure development; the increasing of local agricultural product values; the creation of motivation and promotion of new generation people to participate in planning for development of community-based eco-tourism attractions; and the collection of statistics on the number of tourists and their perceived channels of communication; on the other hand, the guidelines for online marketing promotion of community-based eco-tourism attractions in Nan province were the following: the top-up development of other ec0-tourism destinations; the development of websites for collection of data concerning eco-tourism; and the development of e-commerce for community products and services for tourists.