Guidelines for the Development of Eco-Tourism for Conservation of San Sai Sub-District, Fang District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

This research aims to study the level of potential and factors influencing the development of ecotourism for conservation in San Sai Subdistrict, Fang District, Chiang Mai Province, as well as to propose development approaches that align with community sustainability in the study area. A mixed-methods approach was employed to obtain comprehensive quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The sample comprised 340 community members involved in ecotourism, with data collected through questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. In-depth interviews were also conducted with eight key informants, including community leaders, local authorities, entrepreneurs, and experts, to explore qualitative insights through descriptive interpretation.

The findings revealed that 1) the community possesses a high level of tourism potential across attitudes, knowledge, satisfaction, participation, management, and tourism resources, particularly with the highest means in resources and management, indicating strong community readiness for sustainable ecotourism development; 2) structural equation modeling analysis identified that the community members’ potential has the greatest overall influence on ecotourism development, followed by management, resource utilization, and community participation; and 3) proposed development approaches emphasize systematic planning based on resource data, enhancing community roles in management, designing diverse activities aligned with local culture, creating eco-friendly infrastructure, human capacity development, effective management, multi-sectoral collaboration networks, responsible communication, equitable benefit sharing, and conservation-based resource use. The knowledge generated from this study can serve as a guiding framework for sustainable and balanced community-based ecotourism development across economic, social, and environmental dimensions.