Dasta touts lake basin’s tour appeal

Areas come up with travel suggestions

PHATTHALUNG: The Designated Area for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Dasta) is working with local neighborhoods along the Songkhla River basin to promote lasting tourism activities in the region.

The Songkhla Lake basin covers 15 zones across three provinces — eight which are in Songkhla, 5 in Phatthalung and two in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

According to Dasta director, Athikun Kongmee, the lake container was first chosen to end up being the focus of the government’s sustainable tourism push back in June.

The area had been picked for its wealth of natural sources, which have inspired indigenous knowledge and ways of life that must be conserved and developed into an eco-tourism destination.

In order to make sure public participation in the lake basin’s development, Mr Athikun stated Dasta officials carefully worked with local residential areas to identify activities and destinations which could end up being developed further in order to attract tourists.

“Local areas know the best way to protect their own resources plus heritage, so all we did has been support them with the process. Their cooperation will ensure the particular developments in the area are sustainable, ” he or she said.

Communities around the Songkhla Lake basin have got so far proposed the development of five new tourism attractions which concentrate on the area’s traditions.

The very first proposed attraction is a hiking route which takes tourists across the area’s extensive paddy fields and glucose palm plantations, as the second is a guided tour along the shores of Songkhla Lake to showcase the particular area’s traditional life-style, which is centred about raising buffalo plus fishing.

The third, Mr Athikun said, is a pilgrimage route that travelers could follow to pay their respects to the late Luang Phu Thuad, one of the most adored monks in Asia.

Your fourth, he said, enables tourists to learn traditional performances from the South, such as the Nora dancing, while the last is going to take tourists on an educational tour of the lake’s ecological systems.

Dasta expects the attractions to create in about 8 million visitors each year, generating some four billion baht associated with income for local communities, he mentioned.

Other pursuits which Dasta is certainly considering includes liberating shrimplets on a farm tour of Koh Mak.