Klong Khwang Village, Planning for Tourism Development
The community of Klong Khwang is located in the Province of Nakhon Ratchasima in the northeast region of Thailand. It is 30 minutes by automobile, west of the province’s capital city of Korat. The village belongs to the Sema tambon (sub-district), which includes13 villages, and the amphoe (district) of Sung Noen, which has a total population of 75,000. The village of Klong Khwang contains slightly more than 100 households.
 The reclining Buddha attracts many visitors. |
With growing international interest in community-based tourism, the task of maintaining cultural and environmental integrity in small, fragile communities has never been more critical. With potential for quick economic gain, such integrity may be sacrificed by shortsighted and harmful development schemes, with both communities and tourists ultimately losing. Klong Khwang is an example of a village where tourism development is being actively planned and developed with a strong emphasis on community involvement.
Throughout Southeast Asia there is considerable pressure on communities to seek alternative forms of economic development. In many instances tourism has been identified as a substantial source of employment and income generation. There are a number of sustainable development issues related to tourism and one of the challenges of sustainable urban tourism destination management is to help communities make effective decisions relating to tourism development.
While tourism is now one of the largest industries in the world and has incredible potential for economic growth, it potentially carries with it significant negative social and environmental impacts. The art of the tourism development and management process is to balance the opportunities and costs for the community, the environment and the tourists.
As a tourism destination, Klong Khwang is still very much at the formative stage. However, as tourism development progresses, efforts are being made to help the community identify and achieve tourism objectives by emphasizing principles that support community participation, environmental sustainability and cultural integrity.
Sustainable urban tourism destination management is based on the need to move from the rhetoric of sustainable development to locally-grounded tourism and management practices. Specifically, sustainable urban tourism destination management explores the challenges of achieving economic benefits from sustainable community tourism while mitigating negative social, cultural, and environmental influences.
The goal is not to simply create more opportunities for the hotel and hospitality industry. Rather it is to recognize tourism as a major force in community development, a force that must be carefully planned and managed taking into account the principle of sustainability.
 The mock tourism day brought more than 40 visitors to the village. |
As mentioned earlier, Klong Khwang is very much a “work in progress” with respect to its development as a tourism destination. Currently, the village receives small groups of international tourists (approximately 10 people each) that book in advance with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). These groups are international press representatives and who receive assistance from the TAT in the form of English-speaking guides and transportation. Other visitors to Klong Khwang are primarily locals from neighboring communities who wish to pay respect to the reclining Buddha and the ‘Sema Thammachak’ (stone wheel of Thamma), as well as visit the archeological site. Typically, visitors spend upwards of one hour visiting Klong Khwang and contribute approximately 10,000 baht/month through Wat (Temple) donations.
The local District Director of Sung Nern and the Poo Yai Baan (community headman) are strongly committed to a tourism development plan based on community development objectives. These include: (a) developing and implementing a tourism program for which “community life” will be central and that include, as core pieces, Thailand’s largest stone reclining Buddha and an as yet unexcavated archaeological city; (b) developing income generating activities for community members through handicrafts, food preparation and community tours; and (c) at a later stage excavating the archaeological city and moat under the direction of the Fine Arts Department of Thailand.
The development of Klong Khwang, specifically in terms of planning and process, has been aided by a Training and Technology Transfer Program (TTTP) involving the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok) and a consortium of Canadian universities.
At the local government level, TTTP team members are assisting officials in a capacity-building process of critical reflection focusing on factors such as carrying capacity, marketing, and social and environmental impacts, and specifically in terms of how these relate to the community-defined tourism objectives. To facilitate this process, TTTP has undertaken the following:
- preparing visual representations of strategic community sites as a guide for the physical development of the village and to encourage community participation;
- designing marketing and promotional materials, including brochures and postcards where local officials are responsible for supplying data such as the key points of interest in Klong Khwang and wording for the print materials;
- developing and describing the various components for the master development plan.
At the community level, a very strategic approach to tourism planning and development is being implemented, one which reinforces stakeholders’ roles in the decision-making process by ensuring community participation. Although effective community participation is an essential principle of sustainable development, it is often one of the most difficult to carry out in practice. Responding to this challenge, and in an effort to build community readiness and capacity to embrace tourism, the Klong Khwang villagers, with help from the TTTP team, conducted a full-scale “mock tourism day.”
The tourism day had a series of objectives. Specifically, it was designed to provide the villagers with an opportunity to experience a significant flow of visitors into their community, thereby creating the opportunity for residents to experience tourists, and tourism-related issues, first hand. It also provided the opportunity to test the community’s infrastructure from a visitation perspective, and to evaluate the attractiveness of the site as a tourism destination. Finally, it provided the residents with the opportunity to make an experiential decision as to whether or not they were eager to accept and develop tourism as a village activity over a longer period of time.
In the mock tourism exercise, a team of students, friends, and family from the TTTP posed as “tourists for a day” in Klong Khwang (the group numbered over 40 and represented ages ranging from mid-teens to early 50s, with an equal representation of males and females). The village headman and community developed the program and specific tourism activities members. From providing English-speaking tour guides and planning an interesting sightseeing itinerary, through to a large buffet lunch, the community proved to be extremely well organized. Evaluations confirmed that the “tourists” had an enjoyable and educational day, and, more importantly, the community experienced the demands and opportunities associated with hosting a large group of tourists.
This tourism day proved to be very effective at providing a basis for experienced-based community discussions of basic tourism issues. Topics included the desirability of large tour groups, the timing of visits, the adequacy of present facilities and infrastructure including waste management, the location of toilet facilities, the time commitment required of a local women’s group for preparing tour group lunches, the distribution of economic benefits, and the influence on daily community life.
 The Poo Yai Baan (Village Headman) is strongly committed to tourism that meshes with community development initiatives. |
Destination management seeks, through an integrated approach to ensure viable and sustainable development. Experience has shown that tourism destinations must develop appropriate organizational structures, carry out a range of planning and design activities, be deeply and directly involved in marketing the destination, and view product development as an essential element of the overall tourism development process. In addition, it is critical that economic and environmental goals are met.
At the present time, Klong Khwang’s economy is based almost entirely on agriculture, with rice being the main crop. However, tourism has been identified as a potential force for economic development, and, through the TAT, the community is already experiencing economic benefits from visitors who come primarily to see the reclining Buddha.
In conjunction with the community’s objective to increase tourism based on community life, a Klong Khwang tourism brochure and various postcards have been designed and produced. Local officials provided input on brochure wording and identified key points of interest, while local Chulalongkorn University graduates afforded artistic input and desktop publishing expertise. The results of this joint effort included not only tangible products for marketing purposes but also an increased capacity for local officials to engage in marketing and design activities.
The Klong Khwang women’s collective is a key contributor to the community’s tourism development program. In the future, this will likely involve handicrafts, such as woven reed mats, as a potential income generating activity. Other activities could include hosting buffet lunches such as the one that took place during the mock tourism day and that highlighted authentic Thai village cuisine of the type not found in the cities. However, the issue of available time is critical as these activities are inevitably in addition to the heavy workload of village life.
The potential benefits for protecting and enhancing cultural heritage through tourism activities are significant. These include developing village identity, creating and enhancing community pride, building or re-building cultural amenities within a region, stabilizing the community, giving purpose to community development, and broadening community horizons. All these have the potential to influence Klong Khwang, and are key drivers with respect to encouraging tourism development within the village.
Just as importantly, there are potentially negative effects associated with tourism development, even on a small scale. These include increased cost of living, displacement of traditional residents, increased crime, undermining local traditions & ways of life, pollution and environmental degradation, pressure on services and facilities, creation of regional disparities and the commodification of culture [AC example: traditional festivals become staged events, inappropriate light and sound shows etc) In fact, local Klong Khwang officials are already facing challenges relating to architectural controls.
 Klong Kwang postcard designed by graduates from Chulalongkorn University. |
One year into the process of developing Klong Khwang as a sustainable tourism destination, it is apparent that a cautious and thoughtful approach is required. Indisputably a fragile community, large tour groups in Klong Khwang will be detrimental to both the environment and the patterns associated with community life. Indeed, as an example of the latter, during the mock tourism day a villager removed her hat while working, explaining that this made her more “presentable.” Tourists and tourism affect the local environment, and seemingly small changes are cumulative in nature. Changes to villagers’ dress and lifestyles in order to accommodate correct or incorrect notions of tourists’ expectations run counter to the basic precepts of sustainable, community-based tourism .
The viability of tourism in Klong Khwang will continue to be a significant issue. A clear understanding of the nature of both product and visitor, realistic expectations of tourism revenues, and appropriate interpretive strategies and guide training are all factors that must be considered prior to the implementation of any tourism program. If, for example, the tourism product is to be traditional community life, then the community must address the difficult challenge of maintaining its traditional, authentic character. Further, if community members are expected to share in the costs associated with tourism, such as decreased freedom to renovate housing, then it is important that financial benefits be broadly distributed.
The task of maintaining the traditional and authentic character of the community’s buildings and layout will be interesting. If tourism proves to be successful, and the economic gains benefit the community holistically, there will be resources for improving public and private buildings. In fact, some homes have already been renovated with much of the traditional character now hidden by modern improvements. The irony is that as the community gets more money to spend on improvements, it will have to withstand pressures to modernize outside the construct of traditional village architecture. The tourism product is based in large measure on the community, as it now exists. Community agreement and persuasion, rather than regulation, will be necessary.
Interestingly, the community is satisfied with a very modest level of financial returns from tourism, at least at the present time. Donations left by tourists are used for the maintenance and expansion of the temple, to augment the revenues from the store run by the women's cooperative, and for community projects.
Through the planning process, the community has chosen to proceed with a model for tourism development that will produce modest numbers of visitors. This level of development will position tourism as a seasonal activity, separate from and for the most part not disrupting the existing agricultural base of the community. Villagers believe this will prove to be the least intrusive on the community while providing for much-needed income at specific times of the year.
This modest approach necessitates a much lower level of involvement on the part of residents and a smaller financial investment. Also, such tourism development recognizes the fragility of the community, limited carrying capacity, restricted budgets, economic goals, and the desire to protect the agricultural base. This is not to say that tourism is lacking in value and importance, but rather that it simply reflects one component of the community’s overall development objectives.
 Another postcard designed by Chulalongkorn University grads. |
Contact:
Thanawadee Sukskulwatana
Tourism Authority of Thailand
Project Planning Division
Le Concorde Building 202 Ratchadaphisek Road
Huai Khwang
Bangkok , Thailand, 10320
66 2 694-1222 (ext. 1935-8) (Phone)
66 2 694-1380 (Fax)
http://www.tat.or.th
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