The objectives of this research encompass an investigative study on the alternative tourism concepts, issues and management in Thailand. The research examines the participative process of local community in home-stay tourism management, the obstacles and factors contributing to the management problems alleviation, the host’s perception and awareness of tourism impacts on social, economic, cultural and environment dimensions. Attempts have been made to analyze related issues, i.e. visitors’ motivation, travel patterns and decision making procedure. In addition, sustainability in managing home-stay tourism has been taken into consideration and discussed. The roles and responsibility of the tourism stakeholders, i.e., government, private sectors, the visitors, especially the local community are also covered.
The research methodology employed includes an overview of a current tourism policy and planning of Samut Songkram province, visitor attitude survey, participative observation, content analysis of in-depth interview and focus group to accomplish a triangulation approach. Questionnaires were randomly distributed to 400 visitors at Plai Pong Pang Home-stay to find out the effectiveness of alternative tourism management. The research findings revealed that despite the positive attitude of visitors to Plai Pong Pang Home-stay, conflict of interests among the local community does exist.