Introduction.
Track of the Tiger T.R.D. (Tourism Resources Development) has been an innovative leader in northern Thailand’s tourism industry since its inception in 1986, when the company broke the traditional tourism model by basing itself not in the city like its competitors, but on the Thai / Burma border, on the edge of the rural farm areas and in daily contact with the rural Thai and ethnic minority groups with which it did business.
We have watched from afar, as despite its vast potential, the northern Thai ecotourism industry has, in the main, failed to develop beyond the low cost ‘noodle trek’ options sold to those who, for want of a better alternative, have taken the – far from fair trade - ‘walk and gawk’ treks through hill tribe villages.
The established hill tribe trekking industry model, where competition is based on price rather than product exploits the ethnic minorities, and has inhibited the development of a sustainable ecotourism industry with a fair trade based price structure.
The rural Thai and ethnic minorities are not genuine stakeholders in the industry, and there is no fair trade pricing system in place that allows them to benefit from showcasing their cultures, customs and local knowledge to the world, whilst learning of the cultures and customs of their visitors.
To correct the imbalance, we have repositioned ourselves as a ‘tourism resources development company’ (the first of its kind as far as we know) in order to try and influence the development of a much more sustainable tourism industry for northern Thailand.
An industry where the community as a whole is a genuine stakeholder, sharing in both the rewards and the responsibilities of a product built on and around the unique qualities of the Thai people and their culture.
In establishing the non profit VWB Initiative – and its pilot ‘Community based ecotourism - private sector JV ’ project the Pang Soong Nature Trails – we have taken the first steps to correct the imbalance.
Tiger T.R.D., now presents a range of tour products that operate under a normal for profit business model, but are designed to use the Pang Soong Nature Trails wherever possible, and in so doing generate revenue for the Ban Mae Lai village ecotourism operation through the payment of trail entrance fees and local community forest guide wages.
We hope that you will consider using them not just because they are ethically responsible, but because they are interesting, different and excellent value for money.
