Visual Impacts and the Preferences of Physical Characteristics of Tourism Development for Natural Landscape: A Case Study of Sri Lanna National Park, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

This paper investigates the physical characteristics of the built environment for tourism development in Sri Lanna National Park and its surroundings, including Amphoe Phrao, Amphoe Mae Taeng, and Amphoe Chiang Dao in Chiangmai Province, and studies the visual impact on the aesthetic value of Sri Lanna National Park that is related to tourist activities. Five mixed methods were applied in this paper, including a literature review, survey, photo representation, simulation of tourism development, and questionnaire. The result of the study shows that there are four landscape types in the study area, including 1) the flat plain, 2) the highland, 3) large waterscape and dam, and 4) conserved natural area, which has different levels of visual impacts depended on the landforms, vegetation cover, and built environment. The architectural styles of the built environment can be grouped with four characteristics. They are 1) traditional architectural style, 2) modern architectural style, 3) contemporary architectural style, and 4) foreign architectural style. The study investigated the preferences and acceptance of these styles with a visual-aid questionnaire. The result shows that the preferred and accepted characters for the built environment vary in architectural styles, shapes (especially the height), and colors according to the related landscape types. Moreover, this study found that certain personal factors influencing the preferable and acceptable physical characteristics of the built environment for tourism development were age, occupation, and education. This research concludes with a suggestion for further study that brings together the existing development on site, the general preferences as found in this research, and the experts’ suggestions on landscape study into consideration.