Nipharat Saiprasert
Baan Palau is a community located in the remote area in the western part of Thailand. It is outstanding in Karen ethnic culture. Tourists are interested in traveling to visit the community but the community does not have tourism management. The community therefore wanted to use Community-based Tourism (CBT) as a tool for community development but still lacking knowledge and good management practices. Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Industry, Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin is an educational institution having academic knowledge of tourism. We collaborated with the community, used community context surveys and semi-structured interviews to explore and find cultural capital for CBT, used participatory action research (PAR) techniques to design and develop management approaches for CBT and using the tourist satisfaction questionnaire to assess the development by analyzing descriptive statistical data. It was found that the Baan Pala-u community had social capital suitable for the development of creative community-based ethnic tourism especially cultural tourism resources that are blended with the area surrounded by rich natural conditions and people in the community are ready for participate in CBT. Tourist attractions can be chosen, travel routes and tourist activities are designed appropriately. Creative CBT itineraries are also designed by choosing hand-woven cotton with a loom as an important topic and the Karen Cultural Learning Center as the main tourist attraction. Finally, the community is able to arrange tour services for experimental tourists by themselves. It reflects that this research can create experiences and increase the readiness of people in the community to effectively manage Creative CBT in terms of sustainability. This is a good practice being an example for the neighboring ethnic communities to use as the guidelines to develop their own communities with Creative CBT management.