The purposes of this research were to :1) study the pattern of strengthening community-based tourism enterprise networking, 2) study the process of community participation, and 3) propose policy recommendations, for building competitive advantage on tourism standard and hospitality in specialized monumental areas of historical districts-Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai, and Kamphaeng Phet. Research areas were two prototype areas consisting of Nakhon Chum Community, Kamphaeng Phet province and Ban-Cook-Pattana community, Sukhothai province. This research used community based research (CBR) plus strategic management to learning community (SMLC) in strengthening community tourism networks. There were 3 main steps of operation as follows: 1) preparation step: arrage leader meeting stage to clarify the objectives, arrange group discussion with relevant network partners in all areas for the development of the previous folk tourism network in the two pilot areas, organize a forum, find out the needs and prioritize the development of manage the community-based tourism network, 2) operation Step: study a context study, analyze the problem, determine the process with particiation, develop the capacity of CBT networking through operational learning processes to drive well-being in the community, and 3) monitoring & evaluation and transfer of knowledge step: arrange learning exchanging stage, evaluate learning outcomes, make participatory policy for development, return the research result to community, transfer knowledge to use, and disseminate the result through various channels such as website, community radio, facebook and knowledge manual.
The research results revealed that there were 5 patterns of strengthening community-based tourism networking towards sustainable community-based tourism standards in the special area of Sukhothai-Si Satchanalai-Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park including 1) human capital development through leader empowerment of the CBT networks 2) interpretation development for CBT enterprise networking, 3) English communication skills developemnt, 4) strategies development for local creative food products and 5) homestay development to support community tourism.
The participatory process of community in strengthening the CBT enterprise network towards sustainable standards, it was found that there were 3 mechanisms and 6 dimensions: 1) government sector, 2) academic sector, and 3) civil and society sector. All 3 sectorsparticipated within 6 dimensions including 1) budget support dimension 2) team capacity development dimension 3) learning process exchanging dimension both of inside and outside to expand the network 4) creative innovation development dimension to reskill and upskill in CBT management. 5) assessment dimension with group empowerment and 6) policy proposed dimension including goals and directions for proactive CBT management with participation and sustainability.
The policy for strengthening community-based tourism networking for building competitive advantage on tourism standard in 2 areas. There were 7 sections consisting of 1) management strengthening, 2) interpretation enhancing for CBT enterprise networking, 3) marketing management, 4) products and services development 5) homestay management 6) policy driving for action plan, 7) knowledge management both of inside and outside for strengthening and developing human capital, social capital, economy in community, enviroment towards sustainable community-based tourism standards service.