A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of science in Regional and Rural Development Planning

Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2018

The community-based tourism in Thailand is getting higher attention. Communities are opening up to the tourism development, which involve the community's member. Community-based tourism or CBT, is one of the tools that can be used for community development. It is a type of tourism, where all are managed by the locals, and all the profits go to the locals. This study emphasize on which factors and practices were used by the already successful tourism communities in the Northern of Thailand. The factors can be divided into four dimensions, which include Social, Economics, Environment, and Institutional. These dimensions were identified with the help of the three bottom-line of sustainable development; and the factors were identified through various existing community-based tourism development workbooks, frameworks, guidelines. In order to decrease the confusion between different sources, this research identified them and group the factors together, then put them into dimensions- as mentioned. The results were that all factors are agreed by the respondents of two communities to be in positive side that these factors from each dimensions are contributing to the success of community-based tourism.