The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has begun using the online tourism management system ‘Local Kit’, as part of its ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of and add value to community-based tourism in Thailand.

Local Kit (localkit.app) is a web application from Find Folk that is geared toward community-based tourism. It was designed to better and more efficiently manage tourism information at the community level, and at the same time, be an intermediary connection between those communities and organisations; such as, TAT.

A key focus in the direction of Thailand’s tourism industry in 2019 is the promotion of responsible tourism with the aim of ensuring sustainability and preserving the local identity. This is in line with the TAT’s ongoing marketing communications concept of ‘Amazing Thailand: Open to the New Shades’.

Included within this are the aims of minimising the impact of ‘over tourism’, better spreading tourism flows and revenue on a wider and more even basis to reduce the gap between high- and low-income earners, and having all Thai people benefit from the tourism industry’s growth.

A pilot project using the Local Kit system offers community tourism nature-based experiences at two villages – Ban Tha Maprang and Ban Khlong Plaen – near Khao Yai National Park, in Mu Si Sub-district of Pak Chong district in the Northeast province of Nakhon Ratchasima. The two villages offer ecotourism experiences and demonstrate how the locals live in harmony with their natural surroundings.