250+ Thai tourism businesses train on minimum sustainability practices, access European markets

More than 250 Thai tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als joined the dynam­ic “Tourlink Thai Tour­ism Sup­pli­ers Train­ing: Tools towards a Suc­cess­ful and Sus­tain­able Future” in September.

The train­ing brought togeth­er Thai tour­ism sup­pli­ers and com­munity enter­prises, across sec­tors, to raise their social and envir­on­ment­al per­form­ance while devel­op­ing their capa­city to reach more high-value European tour­ists through busi­ness partnerships.

A team of inter­na­tion­al and Thai organ­isa­tions — spe­cial­ists in sus­tain­able tour­ism — pooled their skills and exper­i­ence through the EU SWITCH-ASIA fun­ded Tourlink Pro­ject to deliv­er train­ing over two days in Phuket (Septem­ber 21 – 22) and Chi­ang Mai (Septem­ber 27 – 28).

To launch the train­ing, Khun Numf­hon Boonyawat, Deputy Gov­ernor for Policy and Plan­ning at the Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and (TAT), offered inspir­ing open­ing remarks on “Why sus­tain­ab­il­ity is cru­cial for a pros­per­ous Thai tour­ism recovery?”

“It is good news to see European mar­ket trends which sup­port sus­tain­able tourism.

“How­ever, we all need to motiv­ate ourselves — private and pub­lic sec­tors — from the inside, to make sure that Thai tour­ism bene­fits Thailand’s people and environment.

“As we recov­er from COVID, we can no longer sit on the fence. We must chose to be on the side of a green­er future. 

“Sus­tain­ab­il­ity must be the future, because without sus­tain­ab­il­ity, there can be no future worth hav­ing,” the TAT Deputy Gov­ernor said.

Train­ees learned about updated mar­ket trends and some of the biggest issues which need to be tackled to move Thai tour­ism towards sus­tain­ab­il­ity, including:

• Simple steps towards car­bon cal­cu­la­tion and offsetting; 
• Oppor­tun­it­ies for Thai tour­ism busi­ness to access ‘green finance’;
• Prac­tic­al tips on how to reduce plastic and food waste, and 
• Tips on how to travel respons­ibly and pro­tect human rights in Thai villages. 

Ses­sions on ‘Min­im­um Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Codes of Best Prac­tice’ enabled each sup­pli­er group to take home con­crete actions, rel­ev­ant to their sec­tors and services.

Train­ees included staff from hotels, land trans­port sup­pli­ers, com­munity and mar­ine excur­sion sup­pli­ers, and pro­fes­sion­al tour guides. 

Fol­low­ing the train­ing, sup­pli­ers will be coached on how to share their exist­ing good prac­tices and pro­gress on the Trav­elife for Tour Oper­at­ors online plat­form, which can reach tour oper­at­ors focus­ing on European markets.

Sup­pli­er con­tact details were shared by a Tourlink work­ing group of Thai des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment com­pan­ies (DMCs), rep­res­ent­ing the major­ity mar­ket share of European B2B tour­ism to Thailand.

The work­ing group included Asi­an Trails, Des­tin­a­tion Asia, EAsia Travel, East West Siam, EXO Travel, Go Vaca­tion, Khiri Travel, Pan­or­ama Des­tin­a­tion, and Peak DMC. 

The work­ing group also included smal­ler, spe­cial­ist tour oper­at­ors focus­ing on respons­ible tour­ism, includ­ing Anda­m­an Dis­cov­er­ies, Dis­cov­ery Travel, Krabi Spesi­al­isten, Nutty’s Adven­tures, and Trunk Travel.

These oper­at­ors have com­mit­ted to agree on com­mon, min­im­um sus­tain­ab­il­ity actions in their sup­ply chains.

For more inform­a­tion please con­tact Mr Peter Richards, Tourlink Pro­ject Man­ager. Email: peter.e.richards@gmail.com

About the Tourlink Project

The EU-Switch ASIA fun­ded Tourlink pro­ject aims to move Thai tour­ism towards sus­tain­ab­il­ity, through a busi­ness led, sup­ply chain approach. Thai tour oper­at­ors and sup­pli­ers will be sup­por­ted to achieve a pros­per­ous COVID-19 recov­ery, by meet­ing European demand for sus­tain­able Thai tourism. 

Since 2020, the Tourlink team has been work­ing along­side Thai tour­ism asso­ci­ations, tour oper­at­ors and sup­pli­ers to agree on com­mon, min­im­um codes of best prac­tice. Based on this work, the pro­ject aims to work with part­ners in Thai­l­and and Europe, and the Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and (TAT), to strengthen and pro­mote Thai­l­and as a lead­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism destination.

The pro­ject is led by the European Centre for Eco and Agro Tour­ism (ECEAT), which man­ages Trav­elife for tour oper­at­ors and travel agents, along with Thai part­ner organ­isa­tions includ­ing Des­ig­nated Areas for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Admin­is­tra­tion (Pub­lic Organ­iz­a­tion) (DASTA), Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA), Thai Eco­tour­ism and Adven­ture Travel Asso­ci­ation (TEATA), and Thai­l­and Hotel Asso­ci­ation (THA). Pro­ject part­ners have agreed to work as a team to raise sus­tain­ab­il­ity stand­ards and per­form­ance with­in Thai tour­ism sup­ply chains.

Since the begin­ning of the pro­ject in May 2020, addi­tion­al Thai gov­ern­ment agen­cies and private tour­ism organ­isa­tions have partnered with Tourlink, provid­ing research and train­ing expert­ise. These include Thai­l­and Green­house Gas Man­age­ment Organ­iz­a­tion (TGO), the Depart­ment of Envir­on­ment­al Qual­ity Pro­mo­tion (DEQP), Green­leaf Found­a­tion, the Asso­ci­ation of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), Thai­l­and Com­munity Based Tour­ism Insti­tute (CBT‑I), Thai­l­and Respons­ible Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation, and Fair Tour­ism, a Dutch NGO work­ing on com­munity tour­ism and human rights.