Tourism For Good: How Chiang Mai Is Showing the Way
Photo Caption: Digital nomads trek to Huay Yuak, a village of white Karen hill tribe people (Mae Win sub-district, Mae Wang district, Chiang Mai). Will Dunn
Skift Take
Tourism isn't perfect, but sometimes its mission can be. Four projects in northern Thailand are dedicated to creating more sustainable livelihoods for locals, preserving customs and traditions, and developing better conservation efforts for elephants. This is the good that tourism can do.
I showed up in Chiang Mai, located in the northern part of Thailand, a woman on a mission. I was on a quest to find the good in tourism.
You see, I met with locals in Lisbon and heard how tourism has influenced their city’s housing prices and resulted in overly gentrified neighborhoods with hardly any sign of Portuguese culture. I learned in Sofia how the government and key organizations are essentially only getting in the way of themselves when it comes to allowing the city to develop into the beautiful, emerging destination that it is. I realized in Hanoi that many people are just hoping younger generations will take care of their city and set up responsible tourism in ways that they never could.
I recognize the tourism industry isn’t perfect. Thailand has had to close certain beaches such as Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh Island indefinitely and Koh Tachai periodically to tourists to let ecosystems recover from the negative impact that too many people touching the coral and li
