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Innovation in Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Practices Through Creative Tourism in Thailand Asst.Prof.Pichetsaiphan, Ph.D.1 Ornuma Teparakul2 Col

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Innovation in Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Practices Through Creative Tourism in Thailand Asst.Prof.Pichetsaiphan, Ph.D.1 Ornuma Teparakul2 Col Innovation in Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Practices through Creative Tourism in Thailand Asst.Prof.PichetSaiphan, Ph.D.1 Ornuma Teparakul2 Col. Nalikatibhag Sangsnit, Ph.D.3 Sitisak Pathomwaree4 ABSTRACT In response to a global ongoing trend in sustainable and responsible tourism, Thailand is seeking out the best tourism practices through the innovation of "Creative Tourism Thailand" project, launched by the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization) or DASTA. Creative Tourism is seen as a powerful tool in creating sustainable and responsible community tourism. The concept has underlined the idea that tourists cangain authentic experiences through participation in various activities provided by the local communities they visit in order to feel connected to history, culture and way of life. Conceptualizing this idea, researchers have conducted the research which included several site visits and travel demonstration to find out the model of creative tourism activities in Thailand. Successful model can be seen as the bright future in tourism and hospitality in Asia and worldwide. This paper will present creative tourism activities and highlight uniqueness of each tourist place using materials from field studies. Case studies demonstrate how local people create tourist activities from natural and cultural heritage available in the community resulting in the sustainability of the community itself. Examples of creative tourism activities in Thailand from 6 Designated Areas include Koh Chang Islands and related areas, Pattaya City and related areas, Sukhothai – Si Satchanalai – Kamphaeng Phet Historical Parks, Loei province, Nan old city, and U-Thong ancient city. Each area is differently characterized by its nature, history, local culture, local art and people's way of living. One of them, remarkably, Sukhothai was said to be the first national capital of Thailand and was designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. Creative tourism is seen and proposed as a means to promote sustainable tourism. 1 Assistant Professor at Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology. Thammasat University 2 Lecturer at Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University 3 Director of Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization) 4 Managing Director of Designated Area 4, Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization) Our research also points out that sustainable tourism is actually generated from local people and communities. Whenever people realize and appreciate their local history and culture, they will be eager to share these unique experiences to tourists. This can be seen in such creative tourism activities as fishing with local fishermen in Pattaya city, cotton quilt making in Loei province, tung workshop in Nan province and ceramic making in Sukhothai province. These examples show innovation originated from local communities trying to design the suitable program for visitors to feel the spirit of place. We also found that the process to sustainability needs cooperation from both tourists and local communities. This paper concludes that the very fundamentally important factor of sustainable tourism can be practiced through the innovation of creative tourism activities. 1. INTRODUCTION Creative tourism was first termed in 2000 by Crispin Raymond and Greg Richards, as ‘tourism which offers visitors the opportunities to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses and learning experiences which are characteristic of the holiday destination where they are undertaken’ (Richards and Raymond, 2000: 18). At Santa Fe International Conference on Creative Tourism in 2008, this tourism concept has been defined as ‘a tourism directed toward an engaged and authentic experience, with participative learning in the arts, heritage or special character of a place’ (Wurzburger, Rebecca, 2010). Creative tourism highlights the development of tourists’ inspiration by involving them in distinctive activities offered at a travel destination, and thus leading to impression, remembrance, appreciation, and bond between hosts and guests.With emphasis on development of tourists’ creativity, creative tourism is quite different from cultural tourism. Instead of just being witnesses, tourists will have hands-on experiences in unique and authentic activities offered in their chosen travel destination. As a result, they will gain profound insight into history, culture and way of life of the locals. At the same time, creative tourism also helps to preserve local traditions and cultural heritage. Creative tourism also adds values to the destination with least investment because it employs originally available local heritage, both tangible and intangible, for example local traditions. Creative tourism brings about sustainable cultural preservation as well since local people are proud to present their history and culture to visitors. However, management of service facilities for tourism purpose is an essential element in order to achieve creative tourism. It is shown that creative tourism is a new paradigm and new direction in current tourism nowadays. This type of tourism is in some way cultural tourism that focuses on sustainability by stressing the process of participation and communication between visitors and local people, and thus creating attachment between the two groups. Both visitors, or guests, and hosts will have a chance to exchange authentic experiences or real practice learned at the destination to achieve desired goals of engagement, impression and remembrance. Creative tourism paradigm also associates and corresponds with the interest of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in order to support cultural diversity and to build international collaboration for peace and security among members. At present, tourists do not travel for just leisure as before, but they also look for new life experiences to further promote self-development. Concept of creative tourism is a new trend in tourism different from other types of tourism. It shifts from traveling for tangible cultural resources, visiting places like temples, palaces, natural conservation, mountains and such, to intangible cultural resources such as lifestyle, community atmosphere, community identity, history or cultural creativity such as arts, handicraft, with an emphasis on participation between tourists and local people as well as community. Naturally, creative tourists are the sort of tourists with cultural awareness, who are eager to try their hands on diverse cultural activities. This is consistent with an old Thai proverb, ‘Learning by doing’. 2. CREATIVE TOURISM MODEL IN THAILAND In Thailand, the innovation of creative tourism has been launched by the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA). DASTA is a public organization with the roles and responsibilities over sustainable tourism operation, through coordination for integrated administration of areas with valuable tourism resources, with more flexibility and promptness in operation than that of government agencies and state enterprises, as an important driving force in the administration of the country's tourism industry both in short and long terms.There are currently six designated areas consisting of Koh Chang Islands and related areas, Pattaya City and related areas,Sukhothai – Si Satchanalai – Kamphaeng Phet Historical Parks, Loei province, Nan old city, and U-Thong ancient city. Community context is one of the main important elements in implementing creative tourism. Community must be able to provide authentic experience of the tourist destination to attract tourists to come and learn what they are interested in the real place. Community with more learning centers or creative networks will encourage tourists to come and experience more variety and better quality. Once tourists appreciate spirit of place and develop deep appreciation of the place, they tend to return again. Since 2012, an ongoing research has been sponsored by DASTA to develop ideal creative tourism model for Thailand. The research involves several site visits and a pilot test. Potential benefits for community includes network building with tour operators and other public organizations and institutions for long term goals. This network building strategy is set corresponding with determination of cultural values in each community. Once community and the network realize their own cultural values, it is not hard to promote those values to tourists and create bond between tourists and local people. The research process for the development of ideal creative tourism in Thailand involves 2 main steps: 1) the development of creative tourism model for each Designated Area of DASTA, and 2) the development of creative tourism network. What the research team has done in the first step is presented in this paper. The research team has established that any creative tourism model should have the following characteristics. Area-wise characteristics 1) Destination with diverse and distinct culture/nature 2) Local communities with cultural awareness and ownership Process-wise characteristics 1) There is cross-cultural exchange 2) Co-experiences between tourists and hosts. 3) Leading to profound understandings of destination. 4) No harm to traditional values of local culture and communities 5) Aiming at economic, social, and environmental equilibrium During the first year of the project, the research
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