From theory to practice: the three principles of community-based design.

Abstract

Abstract One of the challenges in developing tourism in many local communities, particularly in developing countries, is the danger of commodification of culture. Existing models of cultural tourism often see culture as a relatively static product to be 'sold' to tourists. By embracing local identity and intangible cultural assets, and concentrating on local creative processes, creative tourism can emerge as a fundamental tool for combatting such negative impacts of traditional models of cultural tourism. This chapter reflects on an experimental learning journey, a creative tourism pilot project initiated by the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA) in Thailand. The main objective of this learning journey with DASTA was to develop a Creative Tourism Brain Bank (CTBB), working together in a creative tourism lab which aimed to explore the following questions: (1) What constitutes creative tourism, specific to the Thai context?; (2)What makes creative tourism different from other forms of tourism?; (3) How can we transform community cultural tourism/activities into creative tourism?