The regional management model for ecotourism planning in the Rayong coastal area, Thailand

Abstract

In the coastal area with developing tourism, ecotourism is regarded as a means of the regional policy. To perform sustainable ecotourism needs to realize the management system on the basis of local's participation and willingness. In this study, the objective was to construct the regional management model on the basis of resident's perception and awareness to assess some important ecological and economic interlinkages between tourism, coastal environment and local society in the Rayong coastal area, Thailand. In addition, we suggested the ecotourism planning and regional management from the result of modeling. For the modeling we gathered the available statistical data and materials on tourism, environment, fishery, and local community. Furthermore, we conducted the questionnaire survey for 188 groups of tourists visiting to the Rayong coastal area, and 172 families living in the area. From this survey, some important problems in developing local community emerged, i.e. the garbagewaste problem, the economic disparities between the fishermen and the worker in tourism business. Based on these problems, we constructed the regional management model in the Rayong coastal area. According to this model, it was concluded that the ecotourism plans including the employment of the fishermen and the trash-picking program were effective to good community development in this area.