Tranakjit Yutyunyong

Tourism and Thai People: Social Representations of Tourism Development and Its Social Impact As Perceived by Bangkok Residents Tranakjit Yutyunyong

This study examines the social representations of Thailand?s tourism development and related social impact, as perceived by respondents from Bangkok, Thailand. Employing social representations theory (SRT) and social exchange theory (SET), this study adopts qualitative methods to obtain respondents? representations of tourism development in Bangkok. For the study, forty in-depth interviews and four focus-group interviews were conducted with respondents who were either involved or not involved in the tourism industry. The two main issues considered were, firstly, the determination of the concepts used to perceive tourism development and its social impact among Thai people and, secondly, how social exchanges affect these perceptions.