Exploring Sustainable Tourism Initiatives – Thailand is one of the best tourist destinations in the world. The country’s diverse geographical settings and rich cultural capital offer a wide range of tourism experiences, from relaxing on the beautiful sandy beaches of the south to exploring the lush forests of the mountainous north and enjoying local cultures in the northeast. In 2019, Thailand welcomed a record 40 million visitors. Therefore, tourism is a major driver of Thailand’s economic development, providing about 20% of the national GDP and employing more than 4.2 million people (11% of total employment). However, Thailand’s tourism industry is not without negative side effects. Unsustainable tourism management has led to environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity as well as uneven economic development. Often, the economic benefits from tourism accrue to large foreign tourists and investors while local communities receive minimal economic benefits and face many social and environmental harms.
While the COVID-19 outbreak has taken a toll on the tourism industry, it also provides an opportunity for Thailand to rethink its tourism. Sustainable and resilient tourism has become a key theme for the country and is now one of Thailand’s focus areas. Accelerated Lab Thailand seized the opportunity to embark on a journey to support the growing movement for sustainable tourism through innovative approaches to redefine the country’s tourism industry, particularly from a community-based tourism angle. .
Exploring Sustainable Tourism Initiatives
Emerging in Thailand in the 1990s, ‘community-based tourism (CBT)’ proposes the idea of ’tourism by locals for locals’. This is one of the solutions for sustainable tourism because under this framework the local people are the key decision makers of their tourism development and they are the ones who fully benefit from it. As long-term residents of the region, local communities are more motivated to balance socio-cultural and environmental impacts caused by economic growth and tourism activities. At the end of the day, it’s their home. However, it is important to clear up the misconception that CBT refers to “rural tourism”, limited only to specific styles of tourism that take place in rural areas. CBT is a tourism management model that places local communities at the center of the process and can include diverse styles of tourism, from rural tourism to urban tourism, nature tourism, or even luxury tourism. At its core, CBT is about community empowerment as it is a process in which local people are empowered to improve their livelihoods.
Unveiling How Tourism Benefits And Empowers The Local Community
The pandemic has raised both challenges and opportunities for CBT. Restrictions on international travel have led to a major decline in foreign visitors who constitute a significant audience for CBT. Local communities need to adapt to the domestic tourism market and diversify their offers eg. Community products beyond tourism activities. On the other hand, the pandemic has created new tourism behaviors – traveling in small groups, choosing less crowded places, escaping to nature, and searching for unique experiences and activities for relaxation, among others. Many of these new preferences correspond very well with what CBT can offer and potentially pave the way for the golden age of CBT. In addition, epidemic-induced lockdowns in major cities led to rural-urban migration. Many people who work in cities have returned to their homes during the lockdown and some are looking to find livelihood options at home. CBT offers an alternative and consequently benefits from increased human resources – a skilled workforce that has gained skills and exposure from working in cities. All in all, it is an important time for CBT to take the next step to ensure its growth in this rapidly changing world.
As a starting point, national-level workshops from Accelerator Lab Thailand, Thailand Policy Lab, Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Agency (DASTA), and Local Alec (one of Thailand’s leading social enterprises that works in CBT) organized jointly by Representatives from local communities, relevant government agencies, the private sector, civil society organizations, and academia exchanged views on trends and indicators affecting CBT as well as discussed the desired future and way forward. A few interesting points from the exercise include:
While the discussion identified many areas for development, capacity building for local communities was one of the prerequisites for success. Since local communities are the main drivers of CBT, they must be equipped with frameworks and tools that will enable them to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Existing capacity building initiatives have been fairly successful in supporting local communities to embark on their CBT journey, often focusing on foundation building and short/medium term visioning. While such emphasis is necessary, it may no longer be sufficient. Especially when local communities organize their CBT basics, they should start thinking about sustainability and predictability. As a result, the lab identifies this as our area of work: how local communities can make their CBT more sustainable.
Acceleration Lab Thailand joined hands with two pilot communities to start our learning journey in collaboration with local Elec. Social innovation tools were implemented to invite local stakeholders to reflect on their CBT development and look at it through a sustainability lens. Given the different nature of each community, discussions and sustainability initiatives are conducted in different ways. However, a commonality revealed itself. Society is never the same; The development of CBT is an area of coordination for various groups to create interaction and movement towards sustainability. To explain, let’s take a closer look at each pilot community…
What Does Sustainable Travel Mean?
As a neighbor of the world-famous Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary, the Chulaborn Patana 9 community in Yala Province in southern Thailand has attracted many nature lovers; Some of them went to the village just to enjoy the peace and beauty of the natural environment while others were happy with the rich biodiversity of the Hala Bala forest, rather than their community Malia time in the heart of the village. Puri cultural heritage. The village is familiar with receiving visitors as they have been welcoming relatives and friends from Malaysia and Singapore (the community’s Malayan heritage) for decades. Eight years ago, the concept of CBT was introduced, and a new generation stepped up to lead CBT management. The generational difference is reflected in different views on tourism management – one in the hope of increasing the number of visitors and the other in the pursuit of maintaining a delicate balance. The new generation realizes that their main target is nature lovers. Thus, nature is the main asset of their CBT and its preservation is very important. Therefore, the discussion on limiting the number of visitors considering the carrying capacity of the area was very welcome by the CBT management team.
CBT in Chulabhorn Pattana 9 aims not only to reduce the negative impacts of tourism activities but also to promote positive changes in the local community. In many cases, tourism may cause waste management problems. Conversely, for the Cholaborn Patana 9 community, the visitors are the ones who need to manage the waste in the village. After listening to these ideas, the CBT management team was eager to start a waste management initiative with the support of the laboratory and the local Alec. Waste segregation and organic composting have been initiated by the CBT group and will be shared with the villagers to encourage others to participate in these efforts.
In addition, the CBT management team tried to promote tourism activities that highlighted the value of biodiversity and encouraged conservation. Bird watching has been recognized as a profitable option. Interestingly, in addition to our support, the bird sighting was developed from a collaboration with a visitor who is a bird expert, a former member of the Thailand Bird Conservation Society. Realizing that Cholaborn’s Patana 9 was more than a tourist destination for him, the bird expert saw the potential and was more than willing to help provide bird-watching training to local guides. Challaborn Patana 9 has been able to shift from selling their services to “tourists” to building relationships with “visitors”, some of whom have become “friends” to create a sustainable future for their CBT.
The Nang San community of Sakon Nakhon province in northeastern Thailand is famous for its blue-colored handicrafts. Traditional knowledge about indigo dye has been passed down from generation to generation in Nong San village. When combined with the skills of a new generation artist, Puranpimon Mengetami, this cultural capital becomes the starting point of Nong San CBT. Visitors, both handicraft lovers and tourists to Chilex, enjoy the simple lazy life and rejuvenate themselves with natural dye crafts, organic farming, and the beauty of the local lifestyle. However, the early days of Nong San CBT were not all easy. The community didn’t believe that CBT was viable at first, so Poornapimon had to start small and gradually show success to other people to inspire more support from the village and nearby community. Additionally, with the COVID-19 induced lockdown, villagers who worked in other cities returned to the village and joined forces to expand Nong San CBT. However, on the contrary, Chulabhorn Pattana 9
Nature Based Tourism And Ecotourism
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