Developing Cultural Tourism in Border Province: A Case Study on Bueng Kan Province, Thailand

Abstract

This articles aims to study tourists’ opinions and tourists’ demands for cultural tourism and guidelines to developing cultural tourism in Bueng Kan province, Thailand. This is a new Thai – Lao border province with the Mekong River as a natural boundary. The researchers applied Mix method. The results show that most tourists appreciate memories from the cultural tourism trip in Bueng Kan province and would like to learn more about the way of life of the local community. Regarding the demand for cultural tourism, overall, tourists’ demands for cultural tourism in Bueng Kan province is at the high level. The guidelines to develop cultural tourism in Bueng Kan province, Thailand that were proposed included 1) improvement of the infrastructure 2) creating routes and activities based on local culture 3) establishing a tourists center of information 4) supporting homestay at the Cultural tourism destination.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p55