Thailand will achieve Long term social, cultural and environmental development when sustainable tourism development is attained by the stakeholders in tourism industry. This can be realized through reducing or reversing negative impact of unplanned programmes and overdevelopment on tourism sites.
Sustainable development in tourism ensures that present needs are met without compromising the ability of future generations to cater for their needs (Scripun, 2008).
This article will examine the steps that stakeholders in tourism industry are taking to ensure that sustainable development is achieved fast to enable all stakeholders to enjoy long term social, environmental, economic and cultural benefits.
Traditional mass tourism in Thailand can contribute less to sustainable tourism development. This is because it lacks necessary concern for socio-cultural environment. This objective can only be achieved when there is enough goodwill from the local community, the government and other stakeholders towards the initiation of sustainable tourism development.
Stakeholders in tourism industry can be divided into five categories that include the policy makers, locals, hospitality employees, owners and investors. Policy makers refer to individuals or state organs who formulate national policies, laws and regulations.
A good example of this would be the Tourism Authority of Thailand and government officials. Tourism in Thailand directly impacts on rural-urban migration, social dynamics and does cause some illegal activities such as drug abuse and sex tourism involving minors.
Hospitality employees or staffs get affected by tourist demands, compensation laws, policies etc. The final categories of stakeholders who directly interact with tourist are the investors and owners.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand or TAT undertook a joint initiative with three other key stakeholders namely Skal Thailand, Pacific Asia Travel Association or PATA and Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand or JFCCT to help establish a plan that will ensure sustainable development of tourism in Thailand (Ranee, 2007).
The details of this plan were thoroughly discussed at an interactive forum called “mapping the Future” that took place last year. The essence of this forum was to find ways of ensuring sustainable tourism development that will meet the needs of tourists, locals and the tourism industry in general.
The success of the joint forum is pegged on the level of stakeholder involvement in the implementation of the strategies that were discussed. The practitioners from the industry possess requisite experience that can help solve problems in Thai travel and tourism industry to ensure positive development and growth in future.
The stake holders who took part in “Mapping the Future” forum resolved to refurbish Thailand’s tourism marketing strategies (Nash, 1998). These included creating a better and stronger brand image for Thailand, managing reputation for the countries tourism, promoting sustainable tourism and promote extensive use of e-marketing and social media.
Due to increase in involvement of Chinese tourists in Thai tourism industry, the forum members suggested that TAT should accord the professor from China Tourism Academy Dr. Xu Chen an opportunity to provide crucial address on “The Role of Chinese Outbound Travelers in the Future of Thai Tourism and the Tourism Satisfaction Index” (Dearden, 1991).
Another stakeholder member Mr. Tim Riches, from Asia Pacific of Future Brand was charged with the mandate of handling the Brand Image of Thailand. The issue of e-marketing and Social Media was given to Mr. Tiwa York of Omnicom Media Group to handle.
The management of reputation was given to Dr David Beirman, a Sydney professor of tourism from the University of Technology. His work was to address issues arising in hospitality and tourism business given his background in crisis and issue management.
References
Dearden, P. (1991) Tourism and Sustainable Development in Northern Thailand. The Geographical review, 19(20), 5-9.
Nash, D. (I998). Tourism as a Form of Imperialism, in V.L. Smith (ed.). The Geographical Review, 11(13), 12-14.
Ranee, T. (2007). The Case for Government Involvement in human Resource Development: A study of the Thai Hotel Industry. Tourism Management, 9(40), 5-13.
Scripun, M., (2008).Total Quality Management and tourism and Hospitality Education. The Case Study of Thailand. 5(9), 7-11