Social capital in community participation for local tourism development : a case study of fisherman cillage, Samui Island, Southern of Thailand.

Abstract

In Thailand, as other developing countries, tourism is a sector that plays a vital role in socio-economic development for the country. Considering Samui Island,one of a famous beach destination in Thailand, tourism has significant effects on the local community. The island has faced various problems caused by inappropriate planning for rapid tourism growth. To reduce the negative impacts of tourism, a community participation approach has been applied in response to local problems and needs in tourism development with the aim of creating long term sustainability. This paper aims to explore and discuss the pattern of community participatory approach initiated by a small local community located in Samui Island called Fisherman village, one of main local tourist destination.The case study shows how community participation was conducted and organized by the local people who were acknowledged as natives and nonnatives. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses were applied in this research. In the case study, there was as innovation approach of adapting the concept of community participation into diversified local conditions. Consequently, results show that social capital strongly contributed to community participation through mobilizing people for their participation in local tourism development.