CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by GSTF Digital Library (GSTF-DL): Open Journal Systems (Global Science and Technology Forum) GSTF Journal on Business Review (GBR) Vol.3 No.1, November 2013 The Local Economic Promotion through the Creative Tourism Travelling Route: the Practical Application for Chiangrai Province, Thailand Dr. Parnprae Chaoprayoon and Assoc.Prof.Dr.Chalermchai Panyadee, Thailand Abstract— “The Local Economic Promotion through the survive up to the present time. (The Environmental Research Creative Tourism Travelling Route: the practical application for Institute, Chulalongkorn University; 2006) Actually, the Chiangrai Province, Thailand” was a qualitative research that requirement for travelers and tourists at the present time has had the following objectives: 1) To study the potentiality of the been changed from mass tourism to be the Niche market and cultural tourism for Chiangrai Province, Thailand 2) To study the creative tourism travelling routes in order to increase the the cultural tourism attraction which would be more interesting economic value for Chiangrai Province, Thailand. Owing to the and attractive. research, it was found that 1) culture was a social heritage that In actual fact, Chiangrai Province, Thailand, is revealed the prosperity of the society which could be shown in situated at the top North most of the country. Its border region various ways, for example, the cultural arts, the tradition, folklore, architecture, ancient sites and antique artifacts. All of is connected to the neighboring countries such as Myanmar and these could be called “cultural tourism attraction” or the practical Laos with readiness to be the center point for the economic tourism application for Chiangrai Province, Thailand. As the transporting routes, for example, the development of the matter of fact, Chiangrai province was considered to be the upper constructing highway in order to connect with the R3A super most province of Thailand that had long legendary history for highway from China; and the preparation to make an more than 750 years. Thus, Chiangrai Province had possessed a establishment of Chiangrai Special Economic Zone project in variety of cultural tourism attractions that could be revealed Chiangrai province. Actually, Chiangrai province is the front through the practical ways of life of the local residents. Actually, position for welcoming the tourists and the travelers from the “cultural tourism attraction” was based on the traditional China whose tendency would follow the famous movies called festivals and the domestic handicrafts that had the potentiality to catch the attention of the tourists and the travelers who visited “Lost in Thailand”. Chiangrai Province. The only missing link was the transportation According to the TAT tourism information revealed networking of roads and highways to promote the tourism by the office of tourism in Chiangrai province, it stated that in industry. 2) The cultural travelling routes would be creative to the promotion of tourism industry in Chiangrai Province which could the second quarterly report (April-June, 2012), there were 28% be divided into 2 categories. Firstly, the creative or cultural increase in the number of tourists and travelers from the travelling routes in Chiangrai province; and secondly, the creative previous year, 2011, for instance, in June 2012, there were 68% or cultural travelling routes with relative province and neighbor of tourists and travelers increased from the previous year 2011, country. In summary, the creative or cultural travelling routes particularly, in the month of June. Thus, it would be concluded would support the ASEAN community market as well as would that Chiangrai province was the destination for both Thai and hold up the cultural tourism attraction amongst the ASEAN foreigner travelers. Therefore, it would be appropriate to community nations. promote Chiangrai province to be the tourism province of Thailand. Keywords- Creative tourism, Cultural attraction, routes , The creative tourism is considered to be a new and the Cultural Tourism Potential site, Cultural management, Tourism modern tourism industry aiming at the sustainability of the logistics management, Chiangrai ,Thailand industry. The tourists would be able to absorb to understand the Thai culture and the way of life of Thai people. As a result, the I. INTRODUCTION tourists would remember Thai life style and would come back to visit Thailand again in the future because of the creative Presently, the tourism industry has created the tourism that possessed the domestic wisdom and the local economic growth for Thailand as it did in the past. The reason craftsmanship. was Thailand had always possessed a great number of tourism resources both the natural resources and the cultural resources, In short, the creative tourism or the cultural tourism including the human artifacts and the way of life of the citizens for Chiangrai Province, Thailand, has possessed a long of the country. In fact, the cultural tourism attraction was the legendary history for over 750 years in conjunction with the identity of Thailand that the local tourism attractions were full local ethnic origins of more than 30 tribes of ethnic groups. of the cultural arts, the tradition, folklore, architecture, ancient Furthermore, Chiangrai Province, Thailand, has a vast quantity sites and antique artifacts as well as the dressing style and the of land and natural resources that should be developed to be human tools and machinery, foods and drinks, and the tourism attractions for the tourism destination of all the traditional festivals. Additionally, Thailand had preserved the travelers and the tourists. This research wanted to reveal the local and the domestic wisdoms which helped Thai people to Chiangrai Province potentiality for tourism industry, including DOI: 10.5176/2010-4804_3.1.295 123 © 2013 GSTF GSTF Journal on Business Review (GBR) Vol.3 No.1, November 2013 the cultural travelling routes for promotion of ASEAN tourism way of life and so on. The cultural attraction had to be market and for the goal of sustainable tourism industry for transported and transmitted through many generations within Thailand in order to increase the tourism industry income the community, particularly, the Hill Tribe community whose locally and internationally. cultural heritage had been carried out for such a long time; then, it transformed into traditional festivals that persuaded II. OBJECTIVES tourists and travelers to come and to visit their communities in order to see the rituals and the rites of the ceremonies. It was The objectives of this qualitative research were as the the identity that attracted tourists the most and became the following: - tourist attraction sites. Thus, it required cultural management 1) To study the potentiality of the cultural tourism for and the planning to fit to the normal life of the local people. It Chiangrai Province, Thailand was called “Tourism Infrastructure” where tourists and travelers could find way to visit the festivals. Therefore, the 2) To study the creative tourism travelling routes in order tourism logistics management and creative tourism should play to increase the economic value for Chiangrai Province, the role hand in hand in order to assimilate the tourism industry Thailand with the local way of life of the local residents. Chiangrai Province, Thailand, was considered to be the most suitable for III. THEORY AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK cultural tourism industry. “The Local Economic Promotion through the Creative Tourism travelling Route: the practical application for IV. METHOD Chiangrai Province, Thailand” was considered to be the qualitative research whereby the concept and goal of the This research had been carried out in term of qualitative researchers’ followed the following theories and ideas: - research. The researchers tried to make the content analysis so that the assessment of the cultural tourism attraction could be Cultural Tourism Concept made in Chiangrai province through the three-aspect The Cultural Tourism Concept was based on the niche assessment, (1) the potentiality to attract tourists and travelers, market which was the aim for a specific group of tourists (2) the potentiality to welcome tourists and travelers and (3) the emphasizing education and knowledge in cultural and historic potentiality to manage and to administer tourism industry. experience, for example, the architecture, and the social values According to the assessment made by the governmental and the natural resource that would reflect the way of life of the department, the persons who made the quantitative assessment local people, including their traditional folklore and festivals. were the tourists and the travelers and the entrepreneurs who Creative Tourism Concept lived in the tourism attraction area and the educators as well as the tourism developers both the governmental and the private The Creative Tourism Concept had been supported by the sectors. Owing to the assessment, it was found that the PEST UNESCO organization emphasized the building and the Analysis method had revealed the tourism transportation routes development of networking creative tourism so that cultures in creative tourism based on the locally cultural evaluation to and tradition would be assimilated and understood through the find the tourism potentiality in the region of Chiangrai identity of the way of life of the local people interaction in term Province, Thailand;