Alternative tourism and adaptive change

Abstract This paper discusses one example of alternative tourism, trekking in Northern Thailand, to assess the nature of the interaction between the changes in the attraction and the motivations of the client group. Visitation does reduce the authenticity of the villagers, yet several adaptive strategies are successfully employed by the companies to counteract this. A survey of trekkers revealed high satisfactions, yet motivations are changing to emphasize the authenticity of the entire experience rather than the ethnic authenticity of the hilltribes. A transformation is taking place from primary ethnic tourism to cultural tourism with a strong recreational emphasis. While this bodes well for future sustainability, hilltribe response and involvement remain minimal.

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