As we peer into the efforts of Thailand’s tourism sector to leap towards sustainability, an innovative tool arises to spotlight – a mobile application. This app, brilliantly conceptualized and brought to life by a coalition of both public and private entities, changes the game of sustainable tourism. It grants the power to its users – businesses, community organizations, and travelers, to compute their individual carbon footprints. Stepping forward as the champion of this initiative, Supavadee Botiyaraj, the chair of the tourism and creative economy planning subcommittee of the National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office, firmly believes that it’s a potent tool paving the path towards high-quality tourism in Thailand.
This ground-breaking application breaks barriers, stretching beyond tourism, even seeping into industrial activities. Clear, user-friendly guidelines have been set forth, ensuring an effortless user experience. The app is an absolute breeze and a boon to those determined to do their bit for the environment.
Providing more insight into the app, Pakomon Suparbpun, who leads the Low Carbon Business Certification Bureau, explained that the key to carbon credit access and trading lies within this mobile application. It brings the convenience of performing carbon credit payment transactions through mobile phones and banks straight to your fingertips. Through this move, we foresee a surge in income for credit sellers, particularly community-driven endeavors that have an immense appeal to the masses. Thai tourism operators now have a novel method to determine their greenhouse gas emissions for their net-zero services, adding a significant allure for international tourists.
The price tag on carbon credits is tethered to their quality. Well-sourced carbon credits have a green edge over their counterparts from communities, commanding a lower price. Forest areas, being carbon sponges, are a tough find and hence, command a high price compared to community-sourced carbon credits. But in tourism, the price of carbon credits pivots around the consensus of its buyer and seller, ranging between 50 to 200 baht per ton of carbon dioxide.
Striving for sustainable development and fighting climate change are core to Thailand’s ethos, and its commitment is evident in its active participation in the global United Nations’ Conference of the Parties. This body, under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is the nerve center for climate change decision-making. With a far-sighted strategy to counteract climate change, Thailand ambitiously eyes carbon neutrality by 2050 and plans to scale down its greenhouse gas emissions to a net-zero by 2065.
Steering ahead in the direction of sustainable tourism, Wasumon Nertkijchareon, president of the Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association, elaborated on the future tourism markets that would emerge under the Bio-Circular-Green economic model. The tourist hotspots Phuket and Krabi would step into the sustainability limelight with certifications for environmental-friendly tourism. And no prizes for guessing, the zero-carbon app will be the gateway to this utopian transformation from customary to sustainable tourism.
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