Thailand has increasingly positioned itself as an active player in advancing low-carbon tourism practices in the region. From low-carbon itineraries to verified offsetting, the Kingdom’s approach increasingly reflects a coordinated effort between multiple stakeholders: government agencies, researchers, tourism associations, and local operators included.
Among the key figures driving this movement is Nipatpong “Khun Tarr” Chuanchuen. A long-time advocate of ecotourism and founder of TrekkingThai, Khun Tarr has become one of the country’s most visible voices on climate-conscious tourism development – particularly in making carbon-neutral practices accessible and practical for smaller operators across Thailand.
Khun Tarr is proud of the role he’s played in the development of Thailand’s Carbon Neutral Tourism (CNT) framework and the Zero Carbon app, which helps operators and travelers calculate and offset emissions. “Compared to other destinations, our tools are credible, feasible, and affordable, and allow operators, travellers, and verifiers to act in a coordinated way,” Khun Tarr explains.
We sat down with Khun Tarr to discuss Thailand’s evolving net-zero tourism strategy, the lessons learned from the CNT program, and what the future of low-carbon travel could look like for the country’s tourism industry.
You mentioned in an earlier interview that very few countries are doing what Thailand is doing — actively promoting Net Zero Tourism initiatives such as the Zero Carbon app. What differentiates Thailand’s approach from other destinations today?
In Thailand, we have moved beyond advocacy and have begun to build the underlying infrastructure. Compared to other destinations, our tools are credible, feasible, and affordable, and allow operators, travellers, and verifiers to act in a coordinated way.
For example: our Zero Carbon app is a single platform that combines carbon calculation, verified offset projects, and itinerary planning. SME operators, MICE and sports-event organisers, and responsible travellers can use the app in everyday operations.
Three elements, in particular, set our approach apart from those of other countries.
First, our framework is publicly led but privately driven. TSRI, PMUC, TGO, TAT, DASTA, and TCEB define the methodology and provide institutional credibility, while industry actors such as TEATA, the Thai Chamber of Commerce, and host communities carry out the work on the ground.
Second, the model has been designed around the Thai tourism economy, where the supply chain is dominated by small enterprises. The protocols therefore had to be feasible and affordable enough for a guesthouse or a community-based tourism group to follow.
Third, we have invested deliberately in the credibility of the app, working closely with leading international tourism carbon-footprint platforms such as Carmacal, so that calculations produced by the Thai tool are recognised and accepted on a comparable basis internationally.
Since launching the Carbon Neutral Tourism (CNT) program in 2021, what would you regard as your three most concrete achievements?
The first is the launch and continued operation of the Zero Carbon app, which went live in late 2023. From only a few hundred users in its first year, the app has been progressively upgraded through a continuing collaboration between TGO and researchers under TSRI and PMUC.
It now has more than 8,000 users, has been used to calculate emissions for several thousand trips, and supports verified offsetting through TGO-registered projects.
The second is the expansion of low-carbon itineraries across the country. We now have over 350 GHG-managed routes in all 77 provinces. This remains a small share of the total number of routes, but every province now has working prototypes that newer entrants can adapt with relative ease, the highest concentrations being in Chiang Mai, Krabi, and Bangkok.
The third is the capacity-building work undertaken with operators. Across the program we have trained approximately 4,000 operators and guides, supported around 1,000 businesses to begin measuring their carbon footprint, and established the growing Together Net Zero Tourism network — a community focused on knowledge sharing and peer support.
Since CNT was launched, what have been the most visible shifts in how tourism operators design experiences? Have itineraries, transport choices, or supplier selection genuinely changed?
Yes, the changes are visible, although they remain concentrated among operators who have engaged actively with the program rather than across the market as a whole.
The most consistent shift has been in transport. We are seeing an increase in low-carbon vehicles deployed by hotels and tourism transport providers, more deliberate route planning to reduce empty-leg driving, and growing adoption of EVs and hybrids in destinations where charging infrastructure has caught up.
In itinerary design, a meaningful number of operators are now selecting community-based stops in place of generic tourist attractions, which both lowers emissions (by reducing transit) and increases the share of revenue retained locally.
Menu design has also evolved, with more carefully portioned, default options in which meat and seafood are deliberate, locally sourced choices. Our recommended baseline is to source ingredients produced primarily within a 50-kilometre radius of the point of service.
Supplier selection remains the area with the greatest room for development. We recognise that SMEs have very limited time for this kind of work; the development of automation that simplifies the task to the point where adoption becomes attractive is therefore essential.
The Phuket and Krabi zero-carbon pilot trips introduced changes such as shared transport and community stops. What feedback did you receive from tourists and stakeholders, and how did the outcomes shape CNT strategy?
Traveller feedback was more positive than we had initially anticipated. Community visits, in particular, received exceptionally high ratings.
Travellers came for the trip and discovered the sustainability dimension afterwards. This told us our communication should lead with the experience and allow the carbon narrative to play a supporting role, not the other way around.
Feedback from operators and community partners was more practical in nature. Shared transport requires more disciplined scheduling and clearer guest briefings; community stops require fair revenue-sharing agreements. Several partners also flagged that the upfront cost of switching to EVs or upgrading kitchens for energy efficiency is a substantive barrier.
These lessons informed three concrete strategy changes within CNT. We simplified the operator onboarding documentation. We developed a standardised community revenue-sharing template that operators can adapt rather than negotiate from scratch. And we developed a Net Zero Pathway, repositioning CNT as a long-term agenda rather than as a short-term offsetting exercise.
Drawing on what you have learned through CNT and your work with tourism stakeholders, what is the most effective way to lower the barriers for businesses to adopt carbon-neutral practices?
I would prioritise four interventions. First, simplify the measurement step. Tools such as the Zero Carbon app must continue to streamline inputs, so that a busy owner can complete a calculation for a multi-day, high-cost itinerary in no more than thirty minutes. The result will be less precise, but it is sufficient to identify hot spots in the emission profile and to indicate where management action is required.
Second, address the upfront cost. Carbon-neutral practice typically requires capital investment that delivers returns over the long term but places immediate pressure on cash flow. Encouragingly, the availability of both international and Thai funding sources for this kind of work has expanded considerably in recent years.
Third, connect adoption to demand. Operators will move when buyers clearly prefer or require carbon-neutral suppliers. A recognised mark, recognised by both buyers and travellers, is essential.
Fourth, build peer learning. Workshops have value, but a working operator-to-operator network — in which practitioners share both successes and failures — accelerates adoption more rapidly than any top-down programme.
CNT is investing further in this peer-network model, and the new budget secured for this work will support the development of curricula in both Thai and English, in line with our intention to make the curriculum available internationally.
As the founder of TrekkingThai, how do you assess the state of nature tourism in Thailand today — and what does responsible practice look like in this space?
Demand for nature tourism in Thailand is the strongest I have observed in more than two decades of running TrekkingThai.
Thai travellers in particular have embraced trekking, national park visits, and community-based nature experiences at a scale that simply did not exist ten years ago. At the same time, pressure on the most popular sites has grown more rapidly than the carrying capacity of those sites can sustain.
Responsible practice in nature tourism, in my view, rests on four pillars.
First, honest carrying-capacity limits. If a trail can accommodate 150 people per day without damage, the booking system must enforce that limit in practice, not merely publish it.
Second, qualified guides equipped with knowledge of safety, ecology, culture, and nature interpretation. Thailand currently faces a serious shortage of guides capable of strong nature interpretation.
Third, leave-no-trace as a discipline: including pack-in/pack-out practice, designated camping areas, and a strict prohibition on off-trail movement in sensitive zones.
Fourth, an honest financial model. A meaningful share of trip revenue must reach the people and the conservation work that make the experience possible. In current practice, host communities frequently receive almost nothing, and where no restoration-fund mechanism is in place, trails are eventually degraded with no source of finance to restore them — an outcome driven by the prevailing mindset of cutting prices to win customers.
How has the Zero Carbon app performed against the KPIs you set for it, and what outcomes has it delivered since launch?
Performance against the KPIs we set at launch has been mixed, and I believe it is right to be candid about that.
On adoption, the app has been downloaded approximately 8,000 times and currently has around 1,500 active operator accounts. While this exceeds our initial target, our aspiration is to see at least 50 percent of operators using the tool, and we remain a considerable distance from that benchmark.
On the other hand, the app has accomplished two things that are harder to measure but more significant than the headline numbers.
First, it has given operators a common language for discussing emissions with their guests. I have personally visited destinations where I was previously unknown and have been encouraged by local operators to consider their use of the app. Once an operator can begin to identify a hot spot and present the corresponding figures, the conversation shifts entirely.
Second, it has normalised the proposition that a Thai SME tour operator can run a carbon-neutral product without engaging expensive consultants or purchasing international certification.
The areas in which we have fallen short are user retention beyond the first calculation, and the scaling of offset purchases. Both are areas where we are now redesigning the underlying mechanism.
You have said: “Our dream is for Thailand to have evidence showing that we have tourism operators who understand carbon neutrality and net-zero GHG emissions, and who are taking various actions to combat the global climate crisis.” How close is Thailand today to realising that vision, and what specific indicators will demonstrate that the vision has been achieved?
We are partway there — further than we were in 2021, but not yet at the point where Thailand can credibly claim to be a fully carbon-aware tourism destination.
The change at the level of operator awareness has been substantial: training events that once attracted only a few dozen participants now draw more than 350 in the most recent round, and a national low-carbon tourism standard is expected in the near future.
I would look to five specific indicators to confirm that we have arrived.
First, a meaningful share — let us say at least 50 percent — of registered Thai tour operators measuring and disclosing the carbon footprint of their core itineraries on a comparable basis.
Second, OTAs and inbound agents on board, such that mainstream platforms feature carbon-neutral or low-carbon Thai products as a standard search filter rather than a niche category, and operators that do not comply are pushed to lower search rankings.
Third, sector-level GHG data for Thai tourism that is publicly reported on an annual basis and trending downward on a per-traveller basis.
Fourth, an improvement in Thailand’s standing on credible international sustainable-tourism indices — not as an end in itself, but as external validation. This will only be achieved through policy- and system-level management; calculation tools alone cannot deliver it.
Fifth, and most important, evidence that the host communities and ecosystems on which our tourism depends are demonstrably healthier.
If those five indicators advance in the right direction together, the vision is being realised. None will move alone — they must move in concert — and that is the work of the years immediately ahead.
While Thailand’s low-carbon tourism transition remains a work in progress, initiatives such as CNT and the Zero Carbon app demonstrate how collaboration between public agencies, researchers, and industry stakeholders is beginning to shape a more climate-conscious tourism landscape.
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