Thailand | Fair Tourism

KEY CHALLENGES

Vulnerability to exploitation

Superficial interaction

Enviromental challenges

KEY ACTIVITIES

Capacity Building

Create market linkages

1 community

APPROACH

From Listening to Thriving: Building the Path for Community Tourism

Every journey begins with listening. Fair Tourism adopts a participatory approach to developing community tourism initiatives, beginning with on-site engagement and dialogue.

The process focuses on understanding local values, traditions, and aspirations before introducing any tourism framework. Through participatory research and community consultations, Fair Tourism ensures that each project reflects the community’s identity and long-term vision rather than external expectations.

The approach centers on creating meaningful encounters between hosts and guests. By sharing stories, traditions, and daily practices, these interactions promote mutual understanding and respect while enhancing cultural appreciation. Each experience is designed to strengthen cultural pride, contributing to the preservation of local heritage and encouraging intergenerational knowledge transfer. As well as to break the misconceptions of visiting indigenous villages are tourist traps but rather than an opportunity to celebrate living culture.

Ultimately, Fair Tourism’s objective is to support the establishment of self-managed tourism activities that are environmentally responsible and economically fair. Through collaboration with local institutions, NGOs, and other partners, the initiative provides guidance, capacity development, and tools to help communities manage tourism regeneratively. This ensures that tourism contributes not only to income generation but also to the social and ecological well-being of the community.

WHY IT MATTERS

In the past, the community of Huay Pu Keng was vulnerable to exploitation and received little benefit from the tourism taking place in their village. Much of the income went elsewhere, while residents were often reduced to serving as a photo opportunity for visitors.

Furthermore, nearly everyone in the world knows the Kayan community but they also lack of knowledge in their stories and skills. Genuine interaction between travelers and the community was rarely encouraged, leaving the experience superficial. As a result, the full potential of tourism remained untapped — to the disappointment of both the locals and their guests, who could have gained so much more from meaningful cultural exchange.

PROJECT GOALS

Foster meaningful encounters between hosts and guests that can be transformational to both parties.
Encourage mutual respect and understanding through the exchange of personal stories and local traditions.
Strengthen cultural pride and promote the preservation of heritage within the community.
Support community-led management of tourism activities to ensure autonomy and fair benefit-sharing.
Safeguard the natural environment as an integral part of community tourism in a regenerative way.