Discover >100 new carbon-neutral ways to experience Thailand at ITB Berlin 2024

Are you attend­ing ITB Ber­lin 2024 and look­ing for fun and inspir­ing new car­bon-neut­ral tours and activ­it­ies in Thai­l­and for your increas­ingly cli­mate-aware customers?

You’re in luck because the Thai Eco­tour­ism and Adven­ture Travel Asso­ci­ation (TEATA), in part­ner­ship with lead­ing Thai research and edu­ca­tion insti­tutes, is rolling out more than 100 new, inspir­ing tours designed to reduce car­bon emis­sions and off­set the rest, in loc­al, Thai projects. 

At World Travel Mar­ket in Lon­don last year we intro­duced the first 20 car­bon-light travel routes around Thai­l­and. They were enthu­si­ast­ic­ally received. So click here to learn more about car­bon-neut­ral and oth­er sus­tain­able exper­i­ences in Thai­l­and and the region, or click here to dir­ectly book a meet­ing with us at ITB Ber­lin 2024.

Meet us at ITB Ber­lin: Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and booth, Hall 26B, Booth No. 217. Book a meet­ing here: switchasia.travelife.info/book-thailand 

See a short video about our tours here:

TEATA’s par­ti­cip­a­tion at ITB Ber­lin 2024 is sup­por­ted by the EU-fun­ded SWITCH-ASIA Thai Tourlink Pro­ject.

What are they, and why?

Trav­el­lers are look­ing for ways to explore and exper­i­ence, but with a smal­ler car­bon foot­print and few­er impacts on the envir­on­ment. Fur­ther­more, new laws will require European tour oper­at­ors to reduce and report in detail on their car­bon footprint.

How­ever, identi­fy­ing low-car­bon activ­it­ies can be confusing.

The Thai Eco­tour­ism and Adven­ture Travel Asso­ci­ation (TEATA) will attend ITB 2024 to pro­mote new car­bon-light travel routes around Thai­l­and. Developed by TEATA, in part­ner­ship with Thai research and car­bon man­age­ment expert organ­isa­tions, these offi­cial ‘Car­bon Neut­ral Tours’ weave fun hands-on loc­al exper­i­ences, inspir­ing eco-explor­a­tion, and loc­al insights across Thailand. 

If your com­pany sends trav­el­lers to Thai­l­and, these routes can help to reduce their emis­sions inside Thai­l­and without dimin­ish­ing their experience! 

The car­bon-neut­ral routes include a mix of clas­sic tours, redesigned with a lower car­bon foot­print; and more remote, ‘off the beaten track’ loc­al itin­er­ar­ies. Each tour and activ­ity is care­fully designed to reduce car­bon emissions. 

TEATA is work­ing on a new web­site, which will enable searches based on Thai des­tin­a­tions (e.g. Chi­ang Mai, Phuket, Krabi) and exper­i­en­tial themes (cul­ture, nature, adven­ture-sports, food-farm, and wellness). 

TEATA can provide con­tact details of the loc­al sup­pli­ers offer­ing these tours to your Thai part­ner / DMC, to book dir­ectly with the sup­pli­ers. TEATA can also sug­gest loc­al ground hand­lers, work­ing on the ground in these des­tin­a­tions on request. See some examples below and book a meet­ing!

Examples of Thailand’s new ‘Carbon Neutral Tours’

Here are just a few examples of Thail­and’s more than 100 new ‘Car­bon Neut­ral Tours’, from half-day activ­it­ies to multi-day adven­tures in des­tin­a­tions all over the Kingdom:

» Click to see more examples of Thailand’s new Carbon Neutral Tours (PDF) «

How are the tours carbon-neutral?

Since 2020, the Thai Eco­tour­ism and Adven­ture Travel Asso­ci­ation (TEATA) has worked with Thai­l­and Green­house Gas Man­age­ment Organ­isa­tion (TGO), Pro­gram Man­age­ment Unit for Com­pet­it­ive­ness (PMUC), and Thai­l­and Sci­ence Research and Innov­a­tion (TSRI) to design and devel­op fun, inspir­ing new tour­ism routes that reduce car­bon emis­sions and off­set the rest using loc­al Thai off­set­ting schemes. 

The EU SWITCH-ASIA Tourlink pro­ject has brought togeth­er European and Thai car­bon experts to com­pare and align meth­ods for cal­cu­lat­ing the car­bon foot­print of Thai tour­ism itineraries. 

Mutu­al recog­ni­tion of the TGO sys­tem by Car­mac­al adds inter­na­tion­al cred­ib­il­ity to the Thai tools, while enabling car­bon off­sets to dir­ectly sup­port loc­al, Thai projects. 

For each Car­bon Neut­ral Tour there is a three-step process:

1. TEATA helps the sup­pli­er meas­ure the car­bon foot­print of their tour. 
2. The tour is adjus­ted to reduce its car­bon emissions. 
3. The remain­ing car­bon emis­sions are off­set loc­ally, in Thai­l­and, through Thai pro­jects under the TGO. 

What do we mean by ‘Carbon Neutral’?

Here is a short sum­mary of the scope and respons­ib­il­ity of the Thai Eco­tour­ism and Adven­ture Travel Asso­ci­ation (TEATA)‘s ‘Car­bon Neut­ral’ Routes.

Our pledge

We aim to reduce our car­bon foot­print through energy-effi­cient trans­port, loc­al food sourcing, green accom­mod­a­tion, waste reduc­tion, and sup­port­ing loc­al Thai car­bon off­set projects.

The scope of our claims of carbon neutrality

✓ Begins: When tour­ists arrive at the tour’s des­ig­nated start­ing point.

✓ Ends: At the tour’s des­ig­nated end­ing point.

✓ Includes: The tour­ism ser­vices included in the itinerary.

✓ Excludes: Addi­tion­al, per­son­al choices by tour­ists (option­al tours, souven­irs, etc.)

More inform­a­tion? See TEATA’s Car­bon Foot­print Respons­ib­il­ity State­ment (PDF)

How can TEATA help you offer Carbon Neutral Tours?

Existing Carbon Neutral Tours

Each Car­bon Neut­ral Tour is oper­ated by a loc­al Thai sup­pli­er (activ­ity pro­vider, com­munity or pro­vin­cial tour oper­at­or) who has suc­cess­fully sub­mit­ted their tour pro­gram for TGO cer­ti­fic­a­tion. Only cer­ti­fied sup­pli­ers can offer the routes as ‘Car­bon Neutral’. 

TEATA can help your DMC in Thai­l­and con­nect dir­ectly to loc­al sup­pli­ers who offer Car­bon Neut­ral Tours. If you already have a Thai DMC tak­ing care of your cli­ents in Thai­l­and, TEATA can help your part­ners by shar­ing inform­a­tion about the tours and con­tact details of the sup­pli­ers. If you would like to do this, con­nect us with your part­ners, and we will share information.

TEATA does not charge a fee for this.

If you do not have a loc­al DMC part­ner in Thai­l­and, or if your DMC would prefer to work with a loc­al tour oper­at­or and offer the Car­bon Neut­ral Tours, TEATA is happy to share inform­a­tion about our mem­bers; which includes loc­al, spe­cial­ist Thai tour oper­at­ors. These tour oper­at­ors will charge ser­vice fees / com­mis­sion for their services

New Carbon Neutral Tours 

TEATA can train Thai DMCs / tour oper­at­ors to use the tools developed by TEATA and Thai­l­and Green­house Gas Man­age­ment Organ­isa­tion (TGO) to devel­op your own Car­bon Neut­ral Tours. Train­ing includes how to use TGO’s tools to design low-car­bon tours, meas­ure car­bon foot­print, reduce car­bon foot­print, and off­set remain­ing emis­sions using loc­al Thai projects. 

Stand­ard train­ing (in a group of tour oper­at­ors) and applic­a­tion to register a Car­bon Neut­ral Tour pack­age is provided for FREE, fun­ded by the Pro­gram Man­age­ment Unit for Com­pet­it­ive­ness (PMUC).

Let us know if your loc­al part­ners are inter­ested, and we will let you know when the next free pub­lic train­ing for tour oper­at­ors will take place (Thai lan­guage). Tail­or made train­ings for indi­vidu­al com­pan­ies may also be pos­sible to arrange. TEATA may charge a fee for this. Please let TEATA know if you are interested.

Meet us at ITB Berlin 2024

Meet us at ITB Ber­lin: Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and booth, Hall 26B, Booth No. 217. Book a meet­ing here: switchasia.travelife.info/book-thailand.

TEATA’s par­ti­cip­a­tion at ITB Ber­lin 2024 is sup­por­ted by the EU-fun­ded SWITCH-ASIA Thai Tourlink Pro­ject.

About the EU SWITCH ASIA Thai Tourlink Project

Fun­ded by EU SWITCH-ASIA, TourLink is a tour­ism sup­ply chain ini­ti­at­ive, link­ing EU buy­ers with Thai tour­ism busi­nesses. TourLink aims to raise sus­tain­ab­il­ity per­form­ance along Thai tour­ism sup­ply chains and boost mar­ket demand for sus­tain­able Thai product choices. 

The pro­ject unites the expert­ise of sus­tain­able tour­ism pion­eers: European Centre for Eco­lo­gic­al and Agri­cul­tur­al Tour­ism (ECEAT), Des­ig­nated Areas for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Admin­is­tra­tion (DASTA), Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA), Thai Hotel Asso­ci­ation (THA), and Thai Eco and Adven­ture Travel Asso­ci­ation (TEATA). As the Tourlink pro­ject has pro­gressed, many oth­er Thai organ­isa­tions have become act­ively involved.

The Tourlink pro­ject is deliv­er­ing a suite of sec­tor-based and issue-based activities: 

• At sec­tor level, the core of Tourlink’s approach is mobil­ising and ment­or­ing Thai tour oper­at­ors, accom­mod­a­tions, and oth­er tour­ism sup­pli­ers to achieve sus­tain­ab­il­ity standards. 
• At issue level, Tourlink is work­ing to extend Green Fin­ance oppor­tun­it­ies; reduce plastic and food waste; reduce car­bon emis­sions; and ensure that tour­ism bene­fits des­tin­a­tions, loc­al Thai com­munit­ies, and SMEs.

Results so far

Sec­tor-based work has focused on rais­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism stand­ards in the European-Thai tour­ism sup­ply chain, through a glob­al-loc­al con­sulta­tion pro­cess; train­ing, coach­ing, and audit­ing Thai tour­ism busi­nesses. The pro­ject has worked with sev­er­al dif­fer­ent sec­tors and scales of sup­pli­ers, striv­ing to help busi­nesses ‘where they are now’ in their sus­tain­ab­il­ity jour­ney, through a suite of ‘step by step’ tools. 

Key res­ults are a new part­ner­ship with Thailand’s largest Tour Oper­at­or asso­ci­ation, ATTA, train­ing ATTA mem­bers to achieve Trav­elife Part­ner awards; suc­cess­fully sup­port­ing Thailand’s Depart­ment of Cli­mate Change and Envir­on­ment (DCCE) to devel­op Thail­and’s first GSTC Recog­nised Thai hotel stand­ard; and facil­it­at­ing cooper­a­tion among a Work­ing Group of 14 lead­ing Thai DMCs and tour­ism associations. 

A core tar­get group are tour­ism SMEs that sup­ply Thai DMCs selling to Europe; help­ing them devel­op a more sys­tem­at­ic approach to sus­tain­ab­il­ity. Since 2021, a team of Thai and European organ­isa­tions (TEATA, DASTA, CBT‑I, TRTA, Trav­elife and Fair Tour­ism) have worked with the ‘Tourlink DMC Work­ing Group’ to devel­op simple, ‘Step In’ level sus­tain­ab­il­ity check­lists, and Eng­lish-Thai train­ing hand­books. These have prac­tic­al cases and examples for land trans­port, mar­ine excur­sions, tour guides, and loc­al com­munity vis­its. Sup­pli­ers can access and report on these check­lists online, hos­ted on the Trav­elife platform.

The team has delivered onsite and online train­ing to more than 500 Thai tour oper­at­ors and tour­ism sup­pli­ers. Tourlink part­ners, TEATA, DASTA, CBT‑I and TRTA teams have also run face to face coach­ing in Phuket and Chi­ang Mai to help SME sup­pli­ers get famil­i­ar with the tools and start report­ing. We are ready to scale up, and are plan­ning train­ing at the end of March 2024 in Chi­ang Mai and Phuket. 

Issue-based work has delivered prac­tic­al tools to reduce food and plastic waste; to sup­port the devel­op­ment and mar­ket­ing of car­bon neut­ral tours (includ­ing work to align European and Thai car­bon foot­print cal­cu­la­tion meth­od­o­lo­gies); a detailed study on oppor­tun­it­ies and con­straints for Thai tour­ism busi­nesses to access Green Fin­ance cred­it (Thai lan­guage); and innov­at­ive research on DMCs’ needs for com­munity-based tour­ism, human rights issues, and prac­tic­al solu­tions in Thai vil­lage tourism. 

Reach out

Tourlink’s policy com­pon­ent aims to make prac­tic­al recom­mend­a­tions, which can lead to policies that make it easi­er for Thai tour­ism busi­nesses to scale up their sus­tain­ab­il­ity efforts. A work­shop focus­ing on waste man­age­ment is planned in Phuket on Feb­ru­ary 23, 2024. Any European tour oper­at­ors inter­ested in con­trib­ut­ing your thoughts to our policy white paper are wel­come: please don’t hes­it­ate to reach out.

Find more inform­a­tion, resources, and con­tact details for the EU SWITCH ASIA Thai Tourlink Pro­ject at switch-asia.eu/project/tourlink.

Featured image (top of post)

Dis­cov­er new car­bon-neut­ral tours in des­tin­a­tions across Thai­l­and at ITB Ber­lin 2024, includ­ing where you can SUP. Image © TEATA 2023.