Some tourism awards recognize impressive properties, ambitious campaigns or record-breaking visitor numbers: this one celebrated something more human: the belief that the people who call a destination home should be among the first to benefit when travelers arrive.

Thailand-based social enterprise Local Alike received a Gold Award based on the judges’ selection at the Responsible Tourism Awards Southeast Asia 2026, held on July 7 at Eastwood Valley Golf and Country Club in Miri, Sarawak.

The recognition honored years of work alongside local communities, industry partners and travelers who share one simple conviction: tourism can leave behind more than photographs. It can create livelihoods, strengthen local pride, protect culture and help communities shape their own futures.

For Local Alike, the award does not belong to the company alone, as it belongs to the community hosts who opened their homes and shared their stories.

It belongs to local cooks, guides, artisans, farmers and young people who chose to see tourism not as something happening around them, but as something they could help design and lead.

This is an award for every community that has helped prove community-based tourism can create genuine economic, social, cultural and environmental value.

More than a tour

Founded by Somsak “Pai” Boonkam, Local Alike was built around the idea that tourism should work for local people rather than simply use their communities as attractive backdrops.

The social enterprise works with residents to co-create travel experiences grounded in local knowledge, food, culture, nature and everyday life. Communities decide what they wish to share, how visitors should participate and how tourism can support local priorities.

Its guiding message, “Good Traveling, Lasting Impact,” reflects an approach that connects meaningful visitor experiences with benefits that remain in the destination after the travelers have gone. Local Alike’s leadership team includes Boonkam and Chief Operating Officer Wanvipa Phanumat.

The work is not about turning villages into attractions. It is about enabling communities to welcome guests on their own terms while retaining their identity, dignity and influence over tourism development.

Experience shaped by the communities

Behind Local Alike’s growth has been a team that understands community-based tourism requires patience, trust and long-term relationships.

Among its key leaders is Wanvipa “Thom” Phanumat, whose career has been closely tied to helping communities use tourism as a practical tool for development.

Before joining Local Alike, Khun Thom held senior roles with Thailand’s Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration, including Director of Community-Based Tourism Development and Director of Tourism Strategy Management. Her work focused on strengthening community participation and ensuring tourism success was measured by more than revenue or visitor numbers.

In an earlier discussion about community-based tourism, Thom argued that its true value rests in local participation, community ownership and residents’ ability to determine the kind of development they want.

That experience now supports Local Alike’s work in turning responsible-tourism principles into practical program that communities can manage, sustain and call their own.

Khun Thom has also continued to share lessons from the field as a recognized community-based tourism expert at international, regional and national industry events.

Together, P’Pai, Khun Thom and the Local Alike team have helped demonstrate that meaningful travel does not need to place communities on display. At its best, it invites visitors to listen, learn and participate with respect.

From Southeast Asia to the world

The Responsible Tourism Awards recognize organizations that provide credible evidence of impact and offer ideas that others in the tourism industry can learn from and replicate. The 2026 program included categories covering local economic benefit, diversity and inclusion, nature-positive tourism, cultural diversity, climate adaptation and regenerative tourism.

Gold winners from regional Responsible Tourism Awards traditionally progress to consideration at the Global Responsible Tourism Awards, bringing locally rooted initiatives onto an international stage.

Local Alike said it was proud to represent Southeast Asia at the Responsible Tourism Global Awards, scheduled to be held during World Travel Market London later this year.

The organization pledged to continue advancing community-based and regenerative tourism, using travel as a force to create a fairer and more hopeful future.

The recognition comes at a time when responsible tourism is increasingly judged not by promises, labels or polished sustainability statements, but by evidence of what has genuinely changed for local people.

Local Alike’s Gold Award is ultimately a reminder that the most meaningful journeys are not measured only by where travellers go, but by what their presence makes possible. When tourism is built with communities rather than around them, it can protect heritage, strengthen livelihoods and give local people greater confidence in shaping their own future.

For Local Alike, the road to London is not simply about competing for another award. It is an opportunity to carry the voices, hopes and achievements of Southeast Asia’s communities onto the global stage, and to show the world that travel can do more than create memories. It can create lasting change.