Two Thai locations have gained prestigious awards in Germany for sustainable tourism. The locations are the island of Koh Mak, located in the eastern Trat province, and Huay Pu Keng village within the northern Mae Hong Son province.
The two picturesque locations won high spots on the Green Destinations Story Awards held at ITB Berlin 2023 in Germany. The awards ceremony honours essentially the most inspirational initiatives for sustainable tourism improvement throughout six categories from submissions to the annual Green Destinations Top a hundred Stories competition.
The six classes are: governance, reset & recovery, nature & scenery, environment & local weather, tradition & tradition, thriving communities, and enterprise & advertising.
Huay Pu Keng village gained first place in the Thriving Communities category. The village was recognised for its good practices in community-based tourism, Bangkok Post reported. The village is residence to the long-neck Karen group. Village locals obtained capacity-building coaching for selling environmentally friendly practices amongst residents and guests.
Key received second place within the governance, reset & restoration class. The director of Thailand’s Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration, and the chairman of the Koh Mak Tambon Administrative Organisation, acquired the award in Berlin yesterday.
Koh Mak was only crushed by Normandy in France. In third place was Oguni Town in Japan.
Koh Mak was chosen by the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA) to be Thailand’s first low-carbon vacation spot.
Koh Mak has gone via fairly a journey to realize this status. In 2015, DASTA launched three campaigns in Koh Mak. The first marketing campaign “Eat it Fresh” centered on campaigning for restaurant operators, motels, and resorts on Koh Mak to buy seafood regionally, and develop fruits and vegetables free of pesticides. The second campaign was “Help Koh Mak counting to 10,000 timber.” The third campaign was “A Good Host.” The marketing campaign inspired Koh Mak residents to better their communities by actively decreasing their carbon footprints.
The campaigns seem to have been successful in making Koh Mak a sustainable tourism vacation spot..