Tourism is no longer a dirty word in Mae Klang Luang, a small village in the Dol Inthanon National Park in northern Thailand and a couple of hours drive from the city of Chiang Mai. In the past, Thailand’s tourists – numbering some 13 million a year – had little interest in such places with their modest clusters of bamboo and thatch homes set on gentle slopes among rice fields. Instead, they piled into the beach resorts of the south, forged to succour the dreams of stressed out westerners. Thailand is good at providing such respite, but it is not so good at nurturing a tourism that benefits the many Thais who have seen their traditions and communities overrun by hordes of hedonists. What a handful of Thai villages – and Mae Klang Luang is one of them – are now offering is quite the opposite of mass tourism. Community-based tourism is where visitors stay in local homes, have a glimpse into traditional life, and, most importantly, where management and benefits remain with the community. This means that villagers are properly paid, their culture is respected, and decisions about what the tourists do and see remains with the villagers. No longer, as used to happen in Mae Klang Luang, do tourists arrive unannounced, ask for drugs, show no respect, gawp at the villagers, and depart leaving garbage but no money. Instead, a radical shift in the balance of power means that tourism now benefits the village while the visitors glimpse the ways of local people. There is a hike through the forest learning about the use of plants, a visit to the village organic garden and the fish farm, sipping cups of freshly roasted coffee (fairly traded to the Chang Mai Starbucks, say the villagers), and, of course there is plentiful food, and the hospitality of a village family for a night’s sleep. There is even a small museum full of household equipment and old tools. Even in Mae Klang Luang plastic is replacing terracotta and bamboo and Som Sak, one of the key villagers behind the tourism initiative, knows that the village must hold on to its heritage. Indeed, at Mae Klang Luang, tourism has replaced a negative dependency on poppy-growing and the degradation of the forests. As Som Sak said: “If tourism is one part of our economy we can save the forest. It is sustainable.” Essentially, tourism has become a tool for development. It is a way for the village’s rice-growers, organic flower farmers and foresters to become decision-makers and to continue their lives in a sustainable way. The same positive reaction to tourism has also been gathering momentum in the often over-exploited fishing communities of Thailand’s south. In Koh Yao Noi, for example, one villager recognised how tourism could strengthen their culture. “The sea is normal to us,” he said, “but interesting to tourists. In the past we didn’t see it as important but taking visitors fishing makes us see things differently. Our tourism is not what you get from a hotel, but our service is from the heart.” What is happening in Thailand is a completely new approach. But such positive results do not happen by accident. Progress in Mae Klang Luang and Koh Yao Noi was made possible through a radical partnership between tour operators, both local and international, and the communities themselves, initiated by a small Thai NGO called the Community-based Tourism Initiative (CBTI). Their work creates an important model, and one that provides a power base for the hosts: as Peter Richards, a CBTI worker, said: “Villages are not products – they are being empowered by the process.” It also nurtures a fruitful relationship for the tour operators – and a fascinating holiday for the tourists. CBTI is also responding to what a small but growing body of holidaymakers want. As one tour operator who works with the CBTI told some community leaders: “Our guests are looking to discover your way of life, not a prefab additional or one that you think they might want. They could go to a theme park for that.”
Community based tourism
By Jeremy Smith
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Jeremy Smithhttp://www.jmcsmith.com
Jeremy Smith is the editor and co-founder of Travindy. He is a writer and communications consultant working for a more responsible and sustainable tourism industry.
He is the author of two books, writes a fortnightly blog on responsible tourism for World Travel Market, and provides consultancy to a wide range of companies and organisations, ranging from National Parks to individual hotels and tour operators.