Bamboo Nest at Sangadee – Champions of Community-Led Tourism

Community-led tourism is an essential aspect of the tourism industry where leisure travel wants only to leave a light, and beneficial, footprint within the community that hosts the tourism business or hotel. This is the core ethos that Secret Retreats, the exclusively Asian hotel community that we are longstanding members of, was built on. For the Bamboo Nest Family, the local community will always come before other more typical considerations such as financial profits, the profit is measured more in positive impact, on the community, on staff, on guests and on the home environment. Any projects we undertake will directly involve the cooperative community to ensure that there is a measurable benefit while guaranteeing the protection of a community’s daily way of life, traditions, culture, and customs. As well as benefiting the local people, community-based tourism initiatives like this mean tourists and visitors can enjoy a more meaningful connection with the destination.

Whenever it is possible, Bamboo Nest @ Sanggadee sources and purchases supplies and equipment from local businesses and the community market. This includes any food and ingredients that we do not grow and take from our own organic gardens. All Bamboo Nest @ Sanggadee employees are local people, and any tour guides we work with are also natives of the part of Thailand our guests are travelling to and are TAT-certified experts in their field. As well as promoting community-based sustainable tourism, our policy ensures that guests will benefit from spending time with a local who is enthusiastic about showing visitors a part of Thailand they know like the back of their hand, as it is their home. This is something that companies that are not committed to similar community-based tourism initiatives do not provide their customers with, which inevitably detracts from the overall experience for everyone involved. Instead of the homogenized experience often associated with traditional tourism in Thailand, community-based sustainable tourism offers a unique and much needed alternative, an option for leisure travel where our guests are guaranteed a genuine connection with the Thais they meet, authentic, locally owned accommodation, delicious traditional cuisine, and cultural activities created by people who are passionate about their crafts and not staged for the benefit of tourists. An additional and equally important element of community-based sustainable tourism is minimizing the environmental impact of tourism. This involves implementing eco-friendly practices like utilizing reclaimed and sustainable materials in the buildings in and around our hotel, Bamboo Nest @ Sanggadee, and reducing as much as possible the amount of waste produced, and electricity used.

“We are committed to initiatives such as separating cans, glass, plastics etc. for recycling, using energy-efficient lightbulbs, limiting the use of air conditioning, and using any food waste for compost or animal feed. We also encourage our guests to limit their impact on the natural environment by using reusable glass water bottles for drinking water, and biodegradable drinking straws, thus reducing the reliance on single-use plastic.”

Community-Based Sustainable Tourism is Good for the Soul, as well as the Environment

By putting the local people in our home community first, community-based sustainable tourism increases the happiness and general mental well-being of all. There may well be cheaper tour companies out there but by working directly with the people who take care of our guests we can cut out the middleman and guarantee a fair wage goes directly into the pockets of the people and families that we work with. As a guest of Bamboo Nest @ Sanggadee, you have already become a valued member of the family and we are not interested in providing you with anything less than the most authentic Chiang Mai experience that we can offer. If we recommend a restaurant, eatery, street stall, or artisan cafe Chiang Mai, you can rest assured the Thai food and drinks are authentic and tried, tested, and regularly enjoyed by us and our families and friends too! By trusting us to recommend places to dine we are able to champion up-and-coming businesses established by our friends who will benefit from your visit, not just financially, but culturally.

• Traditional tourism is often built around larger-scale infrastructure projects overseen by faceless corporations.
• Community-led tourism aims to take power away from big business and hand that power back to smaller-scale, locally run enterprises that grow with and benefit the wider community.

A localized economic approach has been proven to improve standards of living and combat poverty. Revenue generated by community-led tourism in Thailand, remains within the community and can be injected into local development projects and community-based initiatives. The collaborative nature of community-based sustainable tourism allows individuals within a community to take pride in their heritage as well as encourage social cohesion. The Bamboo Family sincerely believes that it is only by learning from each other that we can move forward in a meaningful and constructive way.

Traditional Tourism Models Vs. Community-Based Eco-Tourism

Traditional tourism all too often operates while ignoring any input from the indigenous populations, something that community-based eco-tourism aims to reverse. By including the local population in every stage from planning to implementation, priority can be given to the environment, heritage, and culture while guaranteeing any benefits from tourism are equitably distributed within the community. This includes the establishment of special funds that will go towards education and the safeguarding of younger more vulnerable members of the community. Clashes between community and tourism can be mitigated as long as the locals are included in every aspect of the decision-making process. All too often we see an artificial divide being erected between tourists and locals that is needlessly harmful to both parties. Where is the advantage in putting up walls surrounding a hotel to keep the visitors in and the locals out? Thailand community-based tourism aims to break down the barriers which have been created that separate the local community from the visiting tourists.

As more people become interested in community and tourism, it is our hope that community-based sustainable tourism will, at some point in time, intractably transform the traditional tourism industry in a way that benefits both the tourists and the members of the communities they interact with and the Bamboo Family and our families at Bamboo Nest @ Sanggadee and Sanggadee Space will do our bit by remaining a cooperative community where every member has an equal say in deciding how we move forward. And that means you too.

If there is anything you feel we could be doing differently to foster greater respect and understanding, we would love to hear it. If the local community wins, then we all win. We look forward to welcoming you to our humble home, Bamboo Nest @ Sanggadee.