Abstract

This research aims to study the level of people's participation, analyze factors related to people's participation and also explore how to develop local tourism in ecologically friendly way. Survey data were collected from 800 people who live in Songkhla Lake Basin. It was found that most of the samples were female, aged 41-50 years old, attained primary and lower level of education. Most of them were married with 4-6 children andwere local people. With respect to socioeconomic characteristics, the majority were agriculturists with income and expenditure from 5,001 to 10,000 baht per month (US $ 166-334). Most of them have not participated in any associations. The results also showed that their average of knowledge in ecotourism was 8 out of 10. People's participation was in a low level in all categories; decision-making, operation, benefit gaining, and monitoring and evaluation. Finally, the result from one-way ANOVA test proved that people's participation in ecotourism management varied significantly according to gender, education level, income, expenditure, association membership, and knowledge in ecotourism. Some suggestions for policy implementation focus on people's participation. Local and government organisations should encourage and support local people in being part of any associations or establishing local organisations for ecotourism. This helps strengthen community cohesion and local development. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2012.