Reimagining Borderland Tourism: Cultural Heritage, Community Participation, and Governance in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand

Abstract

Tourism in border areas has vast opportunities and challenges because they have ethnic diversity, cultural interaction, and geopolitical proximity. Thailand’s Sangkhlaburi District, such as Mon, Karen, and Burmese communities preserve different interrelated cultural traditions. One of the main disadvantage of Sangkhlaburi toursim growth is they have less infrastruture, disjointed governance, and restricted marketing collaboration. This study examines the cultural heritage tourism and stakeholder cooperation in Sangkhlaburi, which mainly focuses on post-pandemic recovery within the frameworks. The qualitative approach gathered data through depth interviews, field observations, and document analysis from 23 key informants spanning government, community, and private sectors. These results states that Sangkhlaburi’s main tourism asset depend on rich cultual and religious identity. However, it has less fragmented institutional coordination and inadequate infrastructure development. This research suggets that theortical frameworks has participatory governance, sustainable tourism, and destination image development. This research examines by defining the cultural rooted tourism model and a collaborative planning approach which enhances the visitor satisfaction by preventing the area’s socio-cultural integrity.