Rural communities around Thailand are racing to get a piece of the growing tourism pie. For small communities unable to compete on the sheer breadth of attractions, specialisation is the name of the game.
Ban Nam Sab in Phetchaburi province has recently christened itself as "Green Cowboy Village".
The town, which attracts around 40,000 visitors a year, is positioning itself as an "agriculture-tourism community", one of the dozens of tourism sub-specialities communities around the country are adopting.
The village entered the tourism business in 2007 to generate extra revenue for its residents, who were in desperate need after years of substandard harvests.
In 2009 the National Institute of Development Administration conducted a study on community development that suggested Ban Nam Sab change its designation from a tourism village to a Green Cowboy Village, Nam Sab style, and after a while the community agreed.
The villagers began with buying five horses. Then they built an agriculture-tourism route in the village and a tourism route in the forest near the community. They also started retailing crops and One Tambon, One Product (Otop) products, which they say have had a "multiplier effect" on the community.
Ban Nam Sab has 38 horses and a vibrant industry that employs 126 young workers to serve as horse caretakers, show performers, tour guides, and managers of eight homestays.
Nearby villages are taking notice of Ban Nam Sab's unusual prosperity. More than a few of the 40,000 visitors are villagers from other communities aiming to learn a thing or two about rural development.
Agro-tourism, which requires the implementation of agriculture on a sufficiency economy model and the rehabilitation of forests and natural resources, took about a decade to implement, says village headman Chuchat Wannkham, 55.
Tourism activities keep younger residents away from drugs, affording them an avenue to generate income.
Ban Nam Sab won a prize for its sufficiency economy model in 2009, a reflection of the residents' joint efforts to implement the model to overcome poverty.
Deforestation in Ban Nam Sab over the past 30-40 years was a result of government policy to give companies forest concessions.
Over 1982-87, the charcoal burning industry, propped by investors and 2,000 immigrants from other provinces, resulted in massive deforestation even though government announced areas of Ban Nam Sab were part of Kaeng Krachan National Park.
Later, villagers grew maize but found the soil was less fertile than in the past, stripped by drought cycles. They attempted to use more chemicals in production to little avail. Most villagers lived with high debt and their children tended to struggle with drug addictions.
About 80 families in the village were involved in drugs in 1997.
When Mr Chuchat became headman of Ban Nam Sab in 1997, he began studying late King Bhumibol's sufficiency economy principle. The community agreed to adapt the model to rehabilitate natural resources, and solve their drug problems.
The government supported the community when it agreed to use the sufficiency model, and agreed to aid in rehabilitating the forest in watershed areas of Phetchaburi province, he says.
The community established a 6,120-baht saving fund from 42 people, which they registered as an agricultural co-operative in 2004. Today the fund has 67 million baht and 1,300 members.
Mr Chuchart encourages the villagers to work hard, instead of waiting for government assistance.
"I told the villagers if they joined the low-income earners scheme [launched last year], they could not enjoy benefits from the cooperative, which includes low-interest loans."
Only 27 of Ban Nam Sab's villagers joined the government's scheme, all of whom are disabled or have physical or mental problems, he says.
The villagers applied sufficiency economy principles to grow a variety of vegetables instead of growing only one crop as they had done in the past. The model also forced villagers to keep strict accounts of production.
In the first year, two villagers got each 15 kilogrammes of white rice as a reward for conducting accounting everyday.
The crops villagers grow can generate 60 million baht a year from vegetables sales, 40 million baht a year from selling citrons, and 60 million baht from orchards and cattle and tourism.
Mr Chuchart is encouraging villagers to shift their focus to organic products, but it's still a work in progress.
Ban Nam Sab has a total of 14,000 rai of land. Villagers worked together to expand the local forest to 6,000 rais, and to develop 2,000 rais of reservoirs and agriculture areas.
Ban Nam Sab also won the Otop village champion prize for fish production by increasing the value of fish raised in the village. The village also established itself as a sufficiency economy village in 2009.
In order to address the drug problem, Mr Chuchat says the community in the beginning held monthly meetings over drug issues as well as other problems, so all members could keep an eye out and intervene before drug users faced serious problems.
They also occasionally hold activities such as horse riding to keep youths busy, he says.
Chatupon Chanpen, 30, who came back to his homeland to grow organic citrons 10 years ago, says he can generate more than 8 million baht a year by growing organic citrons on 40 rai of land.
"I developed my own organic fertiliser, which reduces 10% of the investment cost. In the past chemical fertiliser accounted for 30-40% of my production cost," says Mr Chatupon.
Citron production was only 5,000 units per fortnight, but grew to 50,000 units per fortnight when using organic fertilisers, he says.
"My citron organic trees can be harvested from for 10-15 years, 10 years longer than when I used chemical fertilisers," says Mr Chatupon.
Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat says the government allocated 821 million baht in the 2018 fiscal year to develop facilities in tourism communities nationwide.
The development conforms to the government's policy to create a balance between domestic and export revenue streams, and promoting tourism in second-tier provinces, he says.
The government authorised the Transport Ministry to develop road and transport networks to link airports, bus services and rail to rural communities.
