The Community Participation in Development of Cultural Tourist Site in the Periphery Central Region

Abstract

This research aims (1) to study the conditions and problems of cultural tourist site in the periphery central region, and (2) to create a model of the community participation in development of cultural tourist site in the periphery central region. It is a qualitative research by an in-depth interview method. The sample of this study included the representatives of eight communities with fives participants each.

The research results found that problem backgrounds of cultural tourist sites were lack of maintenance, restoration, and deterioration from the responsible government agencies, and some were being unknown. Some attractions had problems with natural disasters, transport problems, and sanitation.

The four aspects of participation are summarized follows: (1) less community involvement in problem analysis, solution decision making on the problems in the tourist attractions led to uncertainty. A budget sponsor made solution decisions and improvement plans of tourist attractions which were not meet the communities’ needs or interests. (2) Execution of cultural tourism site development, the communities rarely participated in the operation, performance, desirable solving problems, mutual implementation of the plans, and had no confidence in potential of their community. (3) The participation in benefiting from cultural tourism sites, the communities expected benefits from tourism development and that benefits must belong to community rather than personal interests or any group. (4) The evaluation of cultural sites, the communities had both less participation in evaluation and policy making. Some local tourist information was unprovided. There were lack of discussion and participating in the presentation of performance and improvement ideas. The new body of knowledge gained from this research was a synthesis from some documents, field trips and in-depth interviews. The suitable model for the development of cultural tourist site is “ROBP: MODEL”.