Physical Carrying Capacity of Cultural Tourist Sites

EasyChair Preprint 4682

Abstract

Cultural tourism is the study of local arts, culture, traditions, and customs, whose unique qualities and charms attract visitors. Today, cultural tourism has received a lot of attention from tourists. For instance, in Chiang Rai, there are a total of 3,726,670 tourists; in Ayutthaya, a total of 8,345,957 tourists; Nakhon Ratchasima 9,972,316 tourists; and Nakhon Si Thammarat, the total number of 3,911,063 tourists (Ministry of Tourism and Sports, 2019). During special festivals and holidays, there are more tourists than normal visiting attractions which leads to environmental degradation, decreasing visitors’ satisfaction, and overwhelming demands for limited facilities and local resources. Therefore, this research aims to assess the physical carrying capacity in the selected cultural tourism sites and to suggest proper measures for the management of the sites, so that they can cope up with the increasing numbers of visitors in the future. The four sites that were selected to be the studied areas were Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park, Muang District, Chiang Rai Province; Ayutthaya Historical Park Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province; Phimai Historical Park, Phimai District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province; and Khiri Wong Village, Lan Saka district, Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The variables that were studied to measure tourist capacity are the sites’ physical aspects. The results of the analysis of these variables will lead to the more effective management of tourist attractions to accommodate growing future tourist volumes.

Keyphrases: Physical Carrying Capacity, Tourist Attraction Management, cultural tourism

@booklet{EasyChair:4682,
  author    = {Nattamon Pilaiwong and Jiranan Pimdee and Paphakorn Pitayachaval},
  title     = {Physical Carrying Capacity of Cultural Tourist Sites},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 4682},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2020}}