Socio-economics Impacts of the Forth Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge on the Local Tourism Service Suppliers in Chiang Khong District, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Abstract

This paper aims to identify and evaluate the socio-economic impacts of the Forth Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge Development on the local tourism services suppliers in Chiang Khong District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. However, the key 15 interviewees were chosen purposively to be representatives of the population in this study. Both descriptive and analytical data results were interpreted to attain interesting finding of the socio-economic impacts on the five sectors of local tourism service suppliers namely accommodations, food and beverages, transportation, attraction and entertainment, and destination. Interestingly, the finding has shown two main aspects, which are: 1) the number of tourists increased while the negative economic and social impact increased, 2) the structure of careers in tourism services suppliers have changed due to the friendship bridge developments and new immigration policy. The study suggested that the local tourism service suppliers should be a self-resilience to this development and create the human-made tourist destinations and activities in the community.