Thailand eco-tourism takes off

Sustainable, more responsible tourism grows in popular Asian destination

As it chugged across the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea from the southern Thai isle of Koh Phi Phi Don, a boat filled with divers was humming with excitement. It was mid-February (2023), and the occupants couldn’t stop chattering about bamboo sharks around Koh Mah.

Spotting the “right” kind of marine life is never guaranteed on a dive trip, but these divers were confident about close encounters with sharks, for good reason: they had packed their own.

On board with them were four juveniles, raised at SAii Phi Phi Island Village resort’s Marine Discovery Centre, the biggest private conservation facility of its kind in southernThailand. Since 2021, its tanks have nurtured sharks, clownfish, and coral—all destined for reintroduction in nearby waters.

Koh Phi Phi Don may be surrounded by a marine national park, but damage from boats used for fishing and tourist traffic degraded the environment to the point that nearby Maya Bay, famed as the setting for the Hollywood adaptation of Alex Garland’s novel The Beach, was closed for years to let the ecosystem recover.

After its reopening in January 2022, tourists have flocked back to the area, though access to Maya Bay is tightly controlled.Yet the private sector is largely on board, and eco-minded resorts like SAii (which recently obtained a Green Globe Certification) have partnered with conservation agencies to protect marine life while mounting their own campaigns to clean beaches and work with local communities to minimize waste.

“We’re very proud to contribute by putting life back into nature,” says Kullawit Limchularat, the sustainability development senior specialist at Singha Estate, which owns SAii Phi Phi Island Village. He led the team that took four juvenile sharks to their new home among restored coral reefs, bringing the number to two dozen raised and returned to the wild in SAii’s Save Our Sharks program.

One of the oldest resorts in the Phi Phi Islands, SAii started out as bungalows for backpackers amid an old coconut plantation. The place has since taken on a rustic-luxe character without abandoning its close connection with the outdoors, as evinced by varied initiatives that include the creation of nature trails. And it’s not alone.

Ecotourism may still conjure up images of bamboo shacks and Robinson Crusoe–style isolation, but the growth of high-end eco-retreats shows how sustainable travel has become a powerful industry philosophy.

Five-star properties like Six Senses Yao Noi are among the leaders in this regard. Sited on a former rubber plantation overlooking Phang Nga Bay, the barefoot-luxe resort has had sustainability on the agenda since its early stages of development, with a social and environmental program that embraces everything from community water projects and mangrove restoration to a hornbill conservation project.

Energy efficiency and water and waste management are top priorities, as is local food sourcing—on- site organic gardens, a mushroom hut, and even a dairy goat farm all provide ingredients for the resort’s kitchens.

Over on Koh Lanta’s west coast, the 900-meter private beach at Pimalai Resort and Spa was recently chosen as the release site for 50 endangered sea turtles raised at the Royal Thai Navy’s Turtle Conservation Center, which identified it as a suitable spot for the laying of eggs.

This is thanks in no small part to a ban on motorized water sports and regular beach cleanups led by Pimalai. The deluxe property has also released millions of endemic crabs to help the local ecosystem thrive.

Around Thailand, from the southern beaches to tribal areas in the north, properties and tour companies at every level are taking the high road to minimize their carbon footprint while expanding their appeal.

“Ecotourism in Thailand is very well established,” says Willem Niemeijer, a pioneer in this travel segment long before it became trendy. He founded Khiri Travel in Bangkok in 1993 and built it into a top- tier tour company for Southeast Asia.

Niemeijer does double duty as CEO of Yaana Ventures, which invests in tented camps and nature lodges that facilitate sensitive travel to off-track areas in Laos and Cambodia, as well as Thailand. Case in point is Anurak Community Lodge, a locally run operation that opened in 2016 on the edge of Khao Sok National Park.

The protected area boasts a massive lake, caves, great nature trails, and mesmerizing rock formations, but up until a few years ago, it had little in the way of accommodation or reliable infrastructure. Annaruk helped address this shortcoming, and kick off tourism to the remote park.

Meanwhile, Khiri has set up tents in temple complexes to facilitate tours that bring visitors, and money, to locations with limited infrastructure. The non-permanent structures can be easily removed, thus reducing their overall impact, while visits can inspire local entrepreneurs to launch their own food stalls and lodging.

“The idea is to try and kick-start tourism in places that have great attractions but limited facilities, and then let the communities take over,” Niemeijer explains.

It’s a good example of optimizing some of the best values of sustainable travel and ecotourism, buzzwords in a green wave that has swept the globe with travelers paying increasing attention to energy consumption, climate change, and the impact of travel on nature and communities, while demanding a lighter footprint of resorts and tour companies. “But sometimes,” says Daniel Fraser, CEO of Smiling Albino, “I think that we forget the ‘eco’ part of ecotourism also includes economy.”

Fraser, a Canadian and Thai-language TV show host, co-founded his custom travel company in 1999. Over the years, Smiling Albino went upmarket, arranging tours for celebrities and CEOs involving private planes and pioneering one-of-a- kind experiences. But Fraser remains committed to authenticity. He may book a train for a lavish themed party, but tours also explore home-cooking and unique forms of dance and music in remote villages across Thailand.

Of course, remoteness is no barrier to some high-end hospitality operators. When Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle debuted in 2006 on the fringes of Chiang Rai province, a big part of the appeal was the promise of near-total seclusion, and the rare opportunity to doze off to a serenade of rescued elephants munching on bamboo beside the deck.

Soon it was topping world’s best lists, with guests raving about breakfast visits from baby pachyderms. Bangkok-based Minor Hotels, the group that owns the Four Seasons’ jungle outpost, runs an elephant foundation and a 133-hectare preserve for the giants at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. Many were rescued from mistreatment and previously roamed city streets, often as beggars at tourist sites.

There’s no doubt that the 20 elephants currently living here are the star attraction. Most guests book activities like Walk With The Giants, in which small groups are paired with a few tuskers and their handlers for a stroll through the countryside.

The itinerary may not sound terribly exciting: walking, scratching rears against tree trunks, and eating—the latter almost nonstop, as elephants can weigh more than 10 tons. Yet there is something undeniably magical about being in such close contact with the hulking animals.

Then, just before Covid shut down most tourism in Thailand and around the region, Anantara Golden Triangle outdid themselves and introduced the Jungle Bubbles, allowing guests to stay overnight in custom-built lodgings made of clear fabric, with resident pachyderms brought in to roam around a larger enclosure.

“It’s the closest you will ever get to wild elephants, and a total luxury project,” says John Roberts, Minor Hotels’ group director of sustainability and conservation. “It’s unforgettable to wake up at 3 a.m. and hear elephants snoring nearby.”

For travelers looking to get out on the water, the kingdom has plenty of outfits offering low-impact boat tours of mangrove-lined inlets and coastal areas. Rafts offer energy-free lodging on various lakes and the famed River Kwai in Kanchanaburi. Sustainable tours are heavily backed by the government, including agencies like the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which touts 20 low-carbon travel routes. More extensive itineraries and green agendas have also been pushed by the Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association (TEATA) since its formation in 1997.

TEATA vice president Parichat Suntararak details efforts at monitoring carbon use and finding ways to minimize or offset it in travel: “We calculate the entire carbon use from tours, then look to reduce the footprint, from food waste to changes in transportation.”

TEATA also aims to increase sustainable travel to local communities with excursions to farms and coconut groves, as well as dozens of lesser-visited Thai areas. She points to the north as one example, where crowds go to Chiang Mai, but skip Nan province to the east. “We let people know all the things they can do, like coffee tours.”

With artisanal Thai-grown beans from specialty brands like Moonstone finding a growing audience of international admirers, it seems hard to believe that the homegrown coffee industry is fairly young. “When I first came to Thailand 35 years ago, there was really no coffee, only the instant kind,” says Frans Betgem, founder of Green Trails, who notes that Vietnam at the time already had gourmet beans in addition to cheaper local varieties.

Thailand’s coffee culture slowly upped its game, and in 2016, he launched Green Trails in Chiang Mai, running tours to a coffee farm and village belonging to the Lahu people, where guests can sample local food and learn more about the minority group’s craft traditions. “It’s great to see all the interest in coffee, and the impact it has on people,” he adds.

Green Trails also offers multiday treks to the diverse tribal areas of the north, while a companion company, Chiang Mai a la Carte, creates customized tours that focus on cultural, historical, and experiential attractions. A local transport buff, Betgem promotes tours by samlor, Thailand’s unique but vanishing three- wheeled vehicles.

All of this nicely complements the kingdom’s own efforts to spread tourism more evenly across the country. Before Covid, Thailand welcomed nearly 40 million tourists in 2019—about half the total of France’s annual numbers. Yet the vast majority of visitors see only Bangkok, beaches in the south, and maybe Chiang Mai, notes Niemeijer. “But aside from a few places in France, like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, you hardly ever see logjams of tourists, like at the main tourist attractions in Thailand.”

The Royal Projects Foundation was established in 1969 with an emphasis on the northern hills, then dominated by warlords and opium production. The NGO spearheaded community development projects focusing on alternative crops and crafts in a bid to raise living standards for some of the poorest people in the country, laying the groundwork for others to follow.

Thanks in part to the milder climate, this region of Thailand has blossomed in recent years with the production of a wide range of crops and livestock that feed many of Bangkok’s acclaimed restaurants as well as a new generation of traveling foodies. Many make the pilgrimage into the Chiang Mai countryside to visit Ori9in, an operation backed by the Banyan Tree Group that takes the farm-to-table movement to new heights.

Here, everything from tomatoes to herbs, fresh greens, and melons flourish on an 80-hectare organic farm run by British chef James Noble. Using just-plucked ingredients as well as chicken, fish, and meat from Ori9in, he adds whatever his wife May has harvested to create daily specials at the on-site Waiting For May restaurant.

Down south in Phuket, another ambitious agricultural endeavor is taking shape. Run by Montara Hospitality Group—the company behind the island’s celebrated Trisara resort—Jampa is a huge organic farm supplying one-Michelin- starred PRU at Trisara.

It also offers a memorable dining experience centered on freshly harvested ingredients: visitors can take farm tours and consume wholesome dishes cooked in front of them at outdoor tables with lake views, or tuck into the scrumptious, zero-waste contemporary European fare served at Jampa’s fine- dining hall.

Gourmands overseas are already taking notice. Michelin Guides has awarded both Jampa and PRU a Green Star, a badge of honor that highlights restaurants leading the industry in sustainable practices. Jampa forms part of the new 93-plus hectare Tri Vananda project; the name, explains Montara’s CEO Kittisak Pattamasaevi, means Forest of Lasting Happiness, and the master plan includes residences for sale and villas for rent in a new high-end ecological wellness retreat.

“We believe wellness will be a big part of the future of tourism in Thailand,” he says. “We saw at Trisara that guests are more concerned about health, including where their food comes from. At Jampa, they can actually see how everything grows—this is what travelers are looking for, more and more.”

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