RESIDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN DONG HAU SAO PROTECTED AREA, LAOS

Abstract

Concerns over the importance of residents' attitudes for tourism development have created significant demands for comprehensive planning, including the assessment of local peoples' support for tourism. The development of nature tourism in Dong Hua Sao (DHS) protected area will bring about many changes to the residents. The study concerns with an assessment of the natural resources and the perception of the residents towards impacts of nature tourism development in DHS protected area. The study reveals that the residents of DHS protected area believe that tourism will bring several changes to the social, economic and physical environments of the area. They fell that most of the changes will be beneficial for their community. Moreover, the residents have given higher priorities to issues related to employment and participation in cultural practices for tourism, since these will lead to employment benefits. They also fell that deviant social activities should be viewed as one of the important criteria in judging the tourism's impacts. The result implies that the residents are sensitive to the future impacts caused by tourism and are able to judge the nature of impacts in relation to their needs and wants.