Creative Tourism in Thailand: Problems and Obstacles Case Studies of Ceramic and Cotton Quilt Making

Abstract

This article utilizes Greg Richard and Crispin Raymond’s (2000; 2010) creative tourism concept as a framework for understanding problems and obstacles of creative tourism practice in Thailand. This article reports the results of a survey of perception towards creative tourism by Thai tourists including problems and obstacles in the potential tourist areas that have been developed to be a model of creative tourism in Thailand by a government agency, that is, Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Public Organization) or DASTA. A survey of the policies which have initiated and driven creative tourism in Thailand was conducted, followed by a quantitative survey which was carried out by distributing questionnaires to 300 Thai tourists in the target areas (each 150) along with in-depth interviews. The two target areas were chosen, namely, the ceramic manufacturing areas in Muang and Si Samrong District, Sukhothai Province and the cotton quilt fabricating sites in Chiang Khan District, Loei Province, both of which were locations of potential creative tourism activities by using only two hours for learning and were under development as a destination of creative tourism in Thailand. The implementation of creative tourism still faced obstacles in two aspects. Most travelers could only afford short holiday periods and were unable to plan their trips in advance to incorporate creative tourism activities into their travelling itineraries. In terms of the tourist industry in the areas, creative tourism was still experiencing problems in management and communication of the concept of creative tourism to the target tourists.

Keywords: Creative Tourism, Problems and Obstacles, Ceramic Making, Cotton Quilt Making