The steps towards a model for tourism development in oldtown area: the heritage community of Charoen Krung road

Abstract

This research was conducted to answer the question of Central Charoen Krung’s identity before and after the emergence of a putative creative module promoted within the area, and how a creative district could help raise an awareness of the area among today’s society. Primary data were collected from survey and observation of physical condition, and interviews of stakeholders; secondary data derived from academic texts and historical images. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the analysis.

The assessment indicates several significant aspects of cultural heritage relative to the cultural setting of Central Charoen Krung including the early evidence of relationships between Western diplomats and the Siamese, a collection of building styles, a distinctive spirit of place, cultural juxtapositions, symbolic values, and food culture. However, the district is encountering two important factors that challenge the district, namely hardware, which relates to its existing condition, and software that indicates difficulties of interpretation and supportive functions.

The putative ‘creative district’ concept was used to promote Central Charoen Krung district, where the area had been forgotten from the wider context of Thailand’s tourism industry. According to literature review and research findings relevant to questions of genius loci, gentrification, and creative city, Central Charoen Krung district is presently controversial despite the injection of a ‘creative module’ into the districts that present as a model of tolerance and of the accommodation of difference in the historical area of Bangkok. This dissertation has found that the creative module idea indicates an issue of retaining tradition from modernization with its seemingly inevitable erosion of traditional societies and economies. It also raises the question of a possible synthesis between gentrification and the tradition of an historically creative community in Central Charoen Krung.

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