Tourism and modernity : perceptions of tourism development in three northern Thai villages

Beyond the city, at the village level, the role and the impacts (both positive and negative) of tourism are interwoven with the advent of modernity. Consequently, village communities tend to perceive changes/"‹issues holistically across multiple sectors, from infrastructure development to host-guest language barriers. This paper argues that there is a need for future tourism development in northern Thailand to accommodate the nexus between tourism and environmental, economic, social, cultural and technological change under the aegis of modernity. As the research findings suggest, these (western generated) classifications are perceived by northern Thai villagers as being part of the same phenomenon; in other words, no distinction is made between the changes wrought by modernity and those affected by tourism. However, it is unclear to what extent tourism and modernity can go hand in hand without undesirable development outcomes. This observation is especially important if village communities are to be empowered with regard to sustainable tourism development.