A Development of a Homestay Village for Environmental Conservation Tourism Services in Nong Bua Lamphu Province

A development of a village for environmental conservation tourism services can build knowledge, attitude and behaviors in practices of environmental conservation of the people who have experiences in homestay services. This study aimed to develop a homestay village for environmental conservation services. The study divided into 2 stages. The first stage was to study and survey general information and operations of the homestay villages for conservation tourism services. The second stage was to develop the homestay village for environmental conservation tourism services. The mixed methods were employed for the study with 2 purposively selected villages. 30 village people with homestay service experiences were purposively selected and participated in the study. The Paired t-test and F-test (One-way MANCOVA) were employed for testing hypotheses. The major findings revealed the following: 1. The developed homestay village for environmental conservation tourism services had 6 component’s: (1) Survey, a study of document, survey of community environment and tourism resources ; (2) Operation, planning operation, publicizing information to the village people, organizing a training on an environmental conservation ; (3) Organization Setting, setting a working committee, accepting homestay members ; (4) Relations, making a guide book, leaflets ; (5) Service, welcoming to tourists, tourists activities, and nearby tourist activities ; and (6) Evolution, assessing within the homestays and requesting for evolution from the Tourism Authority of Thailand. 2. The village people as a whole and as classified according to homestay service experiences showed gains in knowledge, attitude and behaviors in practices of an environmental conservation from before attending the environmental conservation training at the .05 level of significance. 3. The village people with 1-3 years of homestays service experiences showed behaviors in practices of environmental conservation after attending the training more than the village people with 4-6 years of experiences at the .05 level of significance. However, the two groups of these village people did not indicate knowledge and attitude toward environmental conservation differently. In confusion, the developed homestay village for environmental conservation tourism services could develop knowledge, attitude, and behaviors in environmental conservation of the people with homestay service experiences. These people had awareness and responsibility in sustainably environmental conservation in the future.