CHIANG RAI– Dawn arrives with a thin veil of mist over the hills. First light runs along green rice terrace ridgelines. Ban Likhai in Nang Lae, Mueang Chiang Rai, wakes before the city. Some visitors step out into the crisp air, while locals roast coffee over bamboo fires.
The scent of wet earth, dewdrops, grass and gentle charcoal smoke blends into one calm note. It feels unclear whether this is a tourist spot or a quiet ritual for the soul.
This is Likhai Nature Walk , a guided route through Likhai’s fields and forests, now in its third year. The programme is being shaped into a model for nature and wellness tourism in Chiang Rai. It is supported by the Chiang Rai Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) under the policy, “Travel in every style.
You can travel to Chiang Rai all year round. Every district has good things.”, which spreads travel beyond famous hotspots and into areas with their own identity.
This year, Athitathorn Wanchaitanawong, President of the PAO, assigned Winyu Thongthan, Secretary to the PAO President, to join activities on site at Ban Likhai. The opening was presided over by Yureepan Saenjaya, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Chiang Rai Office.
Local partners and the private sector also attended, including Wittaya Laoteerasiri, Chair of the YEC of the Chiang Rai Chamber of Commerce, who shared details of cross‑sector cooperation, and Pitsanu Khueanphet, Deputy Mayor of Nang Lae, who welcomed guests as the local host.
At a glance, it may look like a scenic walk. For people who work on the ground in Chiang Rai, Likhai Nature Walk is much more. It is a test bed for local public policy. It balances nature conservation, community livelihoods and a shift towards quality tourism, rather than a chase for high visitor counts.
From village terraces to a national place to reset
Likhai’s rice terraces have gained quite a fame among travellers seeking true rest without long journeys to the border mountains. The terraces offer more than tiered fields on hill slopes. People, culture and nature still sit close together here.
The view stretches across slender curves of paddy bunds with no high‑voltage pylons, no giant billboards, no big chain shops and no buildings that jar with the land. Beauty is not only the landscape. It is the bond between people and soil.
Likhai Nature Walk is not a photo tour for outsiders. It invites guests to move slowly inside the community’s living ecosystem. The core method is forest bathing, or Shinrin‑Yoku, a simple nature‑based practice known in many countries.
At Likhai, forest bathing does not stay within a protected forest. It flows through rice terraces, community woodland, small streams, old footpaths beneath bamboo and mixed farms. Traditional farm landscapes can soothe the mind as well as an evergreen forest.
Four senses lead the way.
- Sound: wind through rice heads, water moving in channels and streams, cicadas in humid groves
- Smell: wet grass, young rice, local herbs grown along field ridges
- Sight: green layers with no skyline of buildings, mist drifting across shaded hills
- Touch and taste: bare feet on cool soil, toes in a natural stream, a hot cup of locally roasted coffee while the air sits just under twenty degrees
This approach matters. It shifts travel from consuming places to being with places. That change sits at the heart of quality tourism. Visitors are welcomed as guests who learn how to move with the landscape and respect it.
Beyond nature trips, a careful local economy
This year’s push for Likhai Nature Walk aligns with provincial policy. Winyu Thongthan, Secretary to the PAO President, set out the direction. Activities like this aim to spread economic gains across all districts. The vision is for Chiang Rai to grow as a province of environment, economy and durable quality of life.
The plan moves Chiang Rai past seasonal tourism tied to cool months, famous peaks and trendy cafés. The province is shaping year‑round quality routes built on its varied terrain, local ethnic groups, community ways of life and natural assets.
This is summed up in the PAO’s working motto, “Travel in every style. You can travel to Chiang Rai all year round. Every district has good things.” (flagship policy number 5 in the set of seven). In practice, it means:
- Reducing the concentration of tourism income
Revenue should not sit only in marketing magnets such as Mueang Chiang Rai, Mae Sai or Mae Chan, or at viral landmarks. It should flow to rural zones, traditional farm areas and communities that still rely on agriculture. Ban Likhai, in Nang Lae, is one such place. - Strengthening the grassroots economy
Carefully designed nature activities, such as forest bathing, appeal to wellness travellers and working adults seeking quiet. They also create income for local households. Think village coffee, small‑batch farm products, home‑style breakfasts, handmade gifts and local guide services grounded in real knowledge of the land, rather than outside tour firms. - Raising Chiang Rai’s profile as a health and environment standard‑bearer
Nature therapy fits the ongoing growth of wellness travel at home and abroad. These guests want deeper experiences than a quick check‑in. The trend carries economic value. They stay longer, spend more and care about quality over volume.
In short, this style of travel does not sell a view. It offers a better way to live for a few days and returns fair income to those who live there.
Many hands, one direction, with the community at the centre
A key strength of Likhai Nature Walk is genuine collaboration. No single public body directs from the top. It works as a network.
- Chiang Rai PAO supports strategy and policy at the provincial level. It links tourism ideas to long‑term quality of life.
- The local authority, Nang Lae Municipality, represented by Deputy Mayor Pitsanu Khueanphet, hosts and arranges the area, checks basic infrastructure and coordinates with the community.
- TAT Chiang Rai, led by Director Yureepan Saenjaya, connects messaging to the public and positions Likhai within quality travel.
- The Chiang Rai Chamber of Commerce and YEC, with Wittaya Laoteerasiri as a driver, look for balanced business opportunities that still protect place, such as wellness trip packages that include stays, local food and cultural experiences.
This set‑up shows how Chiang Rai wants community‑based tourism to work. The community sits at the centre. Government and business support, help with marketing, build readiness and keep the ecological balance in sight.
In other words, it is development that does not turn a village into a resort. The village stays a village, earning from what it already is.
Symbolic Activity to a Provincial Tool
Likhai Nature Walk has run for three years and keeps gaining visitors. Working adults, city people who need a reset and new families, are coming more often. Parents want their children to touch soil, water, breeze and firelight, not spend weekends inside malls.
The post‑pandemic return to nature has opened a clear market. Chiang Rai sees it and is responding, with wellness, health and balance as the offer. The message is firm. Chiang Rai will not wait for winter. It wants to stand for quality of life, all year, with each district offering its own signature.
Flagship policy number 5, “You can travel to Chiang Rai all year round. Every district has good things.”, is not a slogan for publicity. It guides real change:
- Make tourism a self‑reliant base at the district level
- Help farm and mountain communities earn without losing their identity
- Ease pressure at over‑visited sites by spreading demand to new areas
- Shape Chiang Rai as a wellbeing destination, linking nature, local food, meditation, forest therapy and community learning
As public policy, it creates options for a tighter travel economy in the years ahead. It also answers social shifts in Thailand, such as stressed working populations and older groups who want health‑focused trips.
Chiang Rai now sells more than mountain views. It offers a place where people can recover.
A good place to visit must also be a good place to live
Local leaders emphasize a key point. Tourism should not make life harder for residents.
The Likhai Nature Walk model of nature walks and forest bathing differs from volume‑driven tours in important ways:
- Group sizes are kept small
- Walking is the main activity, not vehicles across crop fields
- Activity times fit farm rhythms, usually early morning to late morning, to avoid disrupting work
- Money flows to local hands, such as village cafés, community organizers, local enterprises and guides, instead of leaking away.
So, as visitors breathe in the forest air of Likhai, residents continue to breathe easily at home.
From rice terraces to a template for life‑enhancing travel
What is happening in Ban Likhai is more than hiking or sipping coffee in the mist. It sets a county‑wide marker with human wellbeing at its core.
Success will not be judged only by arrivals. It will be tested by simple questions:
- Are local people living better?
- Does the area keep its natural balance?
- Do visitors leave with lighter hearts?
- In the long run, can Likhai remain a true home for its people?
The third year of Likhai Nature Walk, backed by the Chiang Rai PAO, TAT Chiang Rai, Nang Lae Municipality, local business and the community, shows that tourism does not have to trade nature for cash. It can be a shared ecosystem where each side values the other.
As the motto, “Travel in every style. You can travel to Chiang Rai all year round. Every district has good things.”, turns into real, on‑the‑ground action, Chiang Rai sends a clear signal. The best visitor cities in this century are the ones where residents thrive, too.
