Social Network Model for Managing and Developing Tourist Community in Case Study of Laem Pho Sub-district, Yaring District, Pattani Province

Abstract

This participatory action research aimed to investigate a model of a social network to manage and develop tourism communities in Laem Pho sub-district, Yaring district of Pattani. The research procedure of this study constituted three stages. First, focus group was conducted to collect the data from participants who were selected by using purposive sampling. The participants were administrators, members, and officials of Laem Pho Sub-district Administrative Organization, community leaders, religious leaders, the general public, entrepreneurs, and representatives from District Office, Southern Border Provinces Administration Center, and Provincial Administrative Organization. The focus group was held two times: the first focus group discussed issues regarding partnership network and working mechanism, roles and responsibilities, and the second one considered and synthesized previous studies’ results. The second stage is that the participants who were appointed to be the partnership network were then interviewed regarding the representatives of the partnership network and their roles and responsibilities. The final stage is that the synthesized results were then presented to the sub-district administrative organization, communities, and entrepreneurs. The results of this study revealed that communities in Laem Pho sub-district were the new model of tourism communities which were run by 22 representatives in total from the eight sectors – Laem Pho Sub-district Administrative Organization, community leaders, religious leaders, the general public, entrepreneurs, District Office, Southern Border Provinces Administration Center, and Provincial Administrative Organization. These representatives have managed and developed tourism in Laem Pho sub-district based on tourism development plan in which Laem Pho Sub-district Administrative Organization has played a main role as a manager and coordinator while District Office and other partners lent their full support to the Organization. This partnership network had no hierarchical structure in managing and developing the tourism communities.