Developing Creative Tourism Guidelines Based on Community Identity Along the Sri Lanna Valley Route, Chiang Mai

Abstract

This research article aimed to 1) analyze community identity along the Sri Lanna Valley route, 2) study the process of interpreting community identity into creative tourism activities, and 3) synthesize guidelines for developing creative tourism based on community identity. This study employed qualitative research together with participatory action research. Data were collected through documentary study, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, field observation, participatory workshops, and reflective activities from trial visitors on the tourism route. The key informants consisted of community representatives, community enterprise members, local product groups, community leaders, and cross-cultural trial visitors. Data were analyzed through content analysis, thematic categorization, and conceptual synthesis in order to connect field data with the concepts of creative tourism, community identity, cultural capital, and experience design.

The research findings revealed that 1) community identity along the Sri Lanna Valley route consisted of five dimensions: the identity of valley and water landscapes, the identity of Lanna culture, the identity of livelihoods and resource dependency, the identity of local product wisdom, and the identity of kinship-based community relations, all of which reflected the connections among people, place, resources, and culture; 2) the process of interpreting community identity helped transform local capital from existing community resources into creative tourism activities through storytelling, place interpretation, wisdom learning, participatory activity design, and communication of local values to visitors; and 3) the appropriate guideline for creative tourism development was the 5I Model, consisting of Identify, which refers to discovering identity; Interpret, which refers to interpreting values; Integrate, which refers to integrating community capital; Immerse, which refers to designing participatory experiences; and Institutionalize, which refers to establishing a system for continuity. This model enables the community to become the owner of place meaning and to develop tourism sustainably on the basis of identity, culture, and the grassroots economy.