Community perceptions of environmental and social change and tourism development on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand

This study explored how members of a small town community on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand, perceive their everyday surroundings within the context of an environment that has rapidly changed, primarily due to tourism and associated development. Initially, a projective mapping technique was employed to identify a range of local environmental settings: from those that have most dramatically changed to those that have remained relatively unchanged. These settings were then photographed and used as stimuli in two photographic sorting tasks (Multiple-sort and Q-sort). Quantitative and categorical data derived from the multiple sorting methods were subjected to multidimensional scaling analysis and categorical principal component analysis while the aggregated Q-sort data was used to assess the perceived “suitability” (moh sohm in Thai) of the stimuli settings and associated features from the perspective of local inhabitants. Six setting/environmental feature types were identified: nontourist buildings that hold cultural and social significance for locals, tourist facilities and associated social and environmental problems, water features used by the local community and places and environmental features representative of 'unspoilt' nature. In addition, respondents were found to discriminate between stimuli settings along three underlying dimensions: suitability of change, built versus natural environments and 'insiders' (members of the established local community) versus 'outsiders' (tourists and recent migrants). Individual differences in the way respondents used these dimensions were also assessed. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods used in this study may have utility for identifying and assessing environmental and social impacts, as well as the mental constructs used in assessing such impacts, from the perspective of host communities in others places where tourism is a catalyst of rapid change.