Date: 10 August 2003

Koh Yao Noi, a small island in Thailand's Phuket province won an international tourism award for its home stay program.

The program is operated by the local organization co-working with the 5,500 inhabitants to promote tourism and conserve nature and local tradition at the same time.

Koh Yao Noi is predominantly a Muslim village of which inhabitants depend on the sea for their living. The island was chosen from over 40 countries to receive the "Destination Stewardship Award" which is the title given to the villagers for their success in promoting tourism while preserving the island's natural and cultural heritage.

The main objective of the group is called Responsible Ecological Social Tours Project, or REST. The group has been helping and encouraging the villagers to develop a program where visitors stay with their hosts and learn more about local traditions and lifestyles. By this way, apart from the revenue from tourism, the villagers also preserve their traditional lifestyle and cultural heritage.

The chairman of Responsible Ecological Social Tours explains the reason of the success of this program is that the development is done through a "bottom-up" participation which brought the communal awareness among the villagers on protecting their eco-system. 10 percent of the revenue they gain from tourism is used to fund local reservation efforts such as putting a stop to illegal fishing. The villagers could also manage to create the mangrove rehabilitation to bring back the natural habitats for the endemic creatures.

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