Community Wisdom of Bang Keiat People and the Tourism Innovation Development in Bang Khiat Subdistrict, Singhanakhon District, Songkhla Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research article were 1) to study the community wisdom of Bang Khiat people towards the development of tourism innovation in Bang Khiat Subdistrict; and 2) to propose guidelines for the development of tourism innovation in Bang Khiat Subdistrict, Singhanakhon District, Songkhla Province. The research method was a qualitative research, collecting field data using in-depth interviews and participatory and non-participatory observation. The informants consisted of 30 local scholars, community leaders, and people in various occupations in the area. The data were analyzed using the inferential analysis technique and presented through the descriptive analysis method. The research results found that 1) the community context of Bang Khiat people was a community on the Sathing Phra Peninsula Songkhla.  The community had a history of telling stories of occupations in production for trading with communities in the city and nearby areas. The Bang Khiat community made a living by using the Nod Na Le way of life, which was the wisdom of using the sugar palm, the wisdom of processing sugar palm products, the wisdom of organic gardening, and the wisdom of local fisheries. These wisdoms have been passed down from their ancestors and new learnings from experiments by themselves and government agencies; 2) they can develop the potential of community tourism innovations in 4 areas: (1) product or service innovations, including innovations in the management of learning bases for sugar palm product production, (2) innovations in sustainable tourism resource management, including community wisdom conservation, development of innovators from community scholars, and environmental management, developing waste lands into tourist attractions; (3) innovations in management, including knowledge management for communities, creation of service skills, location management, safety, and problem solving; (4) innovations in community organizations and participation, including community participation in planning tourism products, income distribution through entrepreneur networks, and the use of local raw materials to provide services to tourists.