The Promotion of Creative Tourism in a Secondary City by Connecting Small Local Communities to the Main Local Community Through Digital Media in Samut Songkhram Province

Abstract

Digital media play a major role in tourism marketing, especially with regard to tourism destination positioning and the maximization of tourism revenue. The outcome of this research was the development of digital media to promote creative tourism in a secondary city by connecting small local communities to the main community in Samut Songkhram province. The research has two purposes: first, to create creative tourism routes connecting small local communities to major communities; and second, to produce digital media to promote these creative tourism routes through community participation. The research took the form of PAR (Participatory Action Research), utilizing qualitative methods (i.e. in-depth interviews and focus groups) to collect and analyze data.

The research resulted in the development of four creative tourism routes connecting peripheral communities to the main local communities in Samut Songkhram province: (1) a salt farm route;
(2) a fishing village route; (3) a religious site route; and (4) a floating market and homestay route. These routes are connected to key local community centers, namely Amphawa Floating Market and Mae Klong Market in the Amphawa district. From these four routes, two digital media products were developed: the Android application
“Go Samut Songkhram”, which provides interactive maps and information about creative tourism routes and communities in a way that connects small local communities to major communities; and a video clip hosted on Youtube to promote creative tourism routes. The research results reflect the importance of developing digital media for tourism so as to connect tourist destinations to distribute tourism revenue equitably. Cooperation between stakeholders is also significant in the development of sustainable tourism marketing.