THE ANTECEDENTS AFFECTING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM MANAGEMENT IN THE EAST COAST TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ZONE
Sustainable tourism management can generate income and enhance related business that contribute to economic growth at both local and national level, promote natural and environmental conservation and local culture, create careers and income for local people as well as building long-term strength of local communities and the nation. This research study aims to 1) examine the level of the following variables; tourist attraction potential, leadership, government policy, innovation and sustainable tourism management, 2) explore the relationship among those variables; tourist attraction potential, government policy, leadership and innovation affecting the sustainable tourism management in the east coast tourism development zone, and 3) develop the model of sustainable tourism management in the east coast tourism development zone. The mixed research methodology was applied between quantitative and qualitative terms. In view of the quantitative term, the sample group consisted of 360 tourism operators in the east coast tourism development zone whereas its sample size was calculated based on the 20-time criteria of the observed variables and systematic sampling. Data collection was undertaken through questionnaires that were later analyzed by the structural equation modelling. For the qualitative term, an in-depth interview was conducted with 20 primary informants who were tourism management expertise in the east coast tourism development zone. The research findings revealed that the variables; tourist attraction potential, leadership, government policy, innovation and sustainable tourism management in the east coast tourism development zone were all at a high level, 2) the variables ; tourist attraction potential, leadership, government policy and innovation affected the sustainable tourism management in the east coast tourism development zone with statistical significance level of .05, and 3) the sustainable tourism management model as developed by the researcher was called GLTI-STM Model (G = Government Policy, L = Leadership, T = Tourist Attractions Potential, I = Innovation, STM = Sustainable Tourism Management). Additionally, the qualitative findings indicated that to manage the sustainable tourism in the east coast tourism development zone, the application of new technology and approaches such as 3D (Data Digitizing, Data Sharing, Digitalized Process), intelligence data base management system for tourism data, ecosystem strategy, creation of virtual tour experience and tourism applications are recommended for development and improvement of tourism patterns according to the sustainable tourism principle. The findings in this study can be also applied as a guideline to determine the policy for conservation of natural resources in parallel with the sustainable tourist attraction development, and to standardize the tourism management to be more effective at the international level for future creation of economic value.
Sustainable Management, Government Policy, Leadership} Tourist Attraction Potential, East Coast Tourism