Potentiality and Tourism Development Plan for Maha Sarakham Province

Abstract

This article aims to study present situations of tourism in Maha Sarakham province which led to an analysis to develop a plan for improving the province’s tourist potentiality. The study involved quality and quantity research, as well as the data from annual conferences held between 2015 and 2016, and other related research. From the study   it was found that there are 12 potential tourist attractions in Maha Sarakham which can be divided into two types: 7 arts, cultural and historical tourist attractions, and 5 natural and environmental tourist attractions. In addition, there are 74 ancient remains which have possibility to become tourist attractions. From all the mentioned remains, 17 of them have been registered with The Fine Arts Department, Thailand, leaving other 57 ancient remains unregistered. For the factors affecting the development of tourist potentiality, the results showed that the tourist attraction has the highest mean of x̄ 3.77, following with tourist attraction accessibility with the mean of x̄ 3.68. The factor which has the lowest mean of x̄ 2.97 is tourist activity. The suggestions for tourism development plan for Maha Sarakham province include 1) rehabilitating main decaying tourist attractions and improving their qualities to correspond with market needs, 2) developing a tourist enterprise network in areas with potentiality, 3) encouraging more use of knowledge and new technologies to plan and manage tourism systematically, 4) raising the province’s product brand value, 5) promoting routes connecting adjacent provinces as well as regional traveling, and 6) promoting educational tourism based on Maha Sarakham’s tourist resources.