Dynamic Cultural Pathways to Sustainable Coastal Tourism: Community Co-Creation in Bang Saray, Pattaya, Thailand

Coastal communities increasingly face pressure to transform cultural resources into tourism experiences while preserving local identity and long-term sustainability. This study examined how community-driven cultural processes are associated with sustainable coastal tourism outcomes in Bang Saray, Pattaya, Thailand, using the proposed Dynamic Cultural Activation Framework for Sustainable Coastal Tourism. A cross-sectional survey of 300 residents and local stakeholders was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that cultural heritage activation was positively associated with shared cultural meanings, tourism co-creation practices, and community empowerment. Shared cultural meanings were positively associated with tourism co-creation practices and community cultural learning, while tourism co-creation practices were positively associated with both learning and empowerment. In addition, community empowerment showed a significant positive association with sustainable coastal tourism outcomes, whereas community cultural learning did not demonstrate a statistically significant direct relationship. Overall, the results suggest that sustainable tourism is linked not only to heritage resources themselves, but also to interconnected community processes involving meaning-making, collaboration, learning, and local agency. The study extends prior sustainable tourism literature by presenting culture as a dynamic community resource rather than a static tourism asset. Practically, the findings highlight the value of participatory co-creation platforms, cultural learning mechanisms, and empowerment-oriented governance for inclusive and resilient coastal tourism development. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as theoretically informed associations rather than definitive causal relationships.