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Background Notes - The Golden Triangle and Anantara Resort and Spa

When the Anantara Resort was first established (under different ownership), it was part of the Thai government's central policy to promote tourism development in the region of the Golden Triangle in Thailand. This region is located in the north of the country, which in the past was the centre of the opium trade. The government's development policy aimed to halt supply to the opium industry, ending drug use and cutting rural poverty.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy; its royal family has been involved in many significant development projects. The present King's late mother, Her Royal Highness Princess Srinagarindra, the Princess Mother, took a central role in the Doi Tung Development project within the most northern Thai province, called Chiang Rai.

The aim of the project was to replace forests lost to logging and slash-and-burn farming techniques, and improve the lives of the people living in the heart of the Golden Triangle in Thailand, ending their dependence on opium cultivation and use. The success of the development project can be gauged by analysing the experience of life in the Golden Triangle before and after the Princess Mother's intervention.

Before and After

At present, we cannot analyse the project at its end, because it was initiated in 1988 as a thirty-year plan, with three distinct phases.

• Phase 1: 1988-1993
  Reforestation of the area and development of infrastructure facilities.
• Phase 2: 1994-2002
  Creating permanent jobs and introducing more diverse agriculture. Boosting income levels and developing a tourism economy.
• Phase 3: 2003-2017
  Education programme for all. Self-government of the local communities.

The Doi Tung Development Project is now hailed as a classic example of effective social and economic regeneration. The United Nations (UN) complimented the project as a new source of learning and declared it the 'study centre of narcotic and community problems in Asian countries'.

In 2000, to mark the centenary of her birth, the Princess Mother's work was recognised by UNESCO in its description of her as a World Great Personality of the 20th Century. The Princess Mother is also known in the Chiang Rai region as 'Mae Fah Luang'. This translates as 'Royal mother from the sky', as during her many visits to the area she would arrive in a helicopter.

Anantara Resort and Spa Elephant Camp

Image: The Elephant Camp at Anantara. Copyright: Reproduced by kind permission of Anantara Resort and Spa.

Thai elephants had previously been employed in the logging industry, but their use was banned in 1990, amid the threat of deforestation. Falling numbers of elephants were compounded by the practice of owners migrating with their animal to cities like Bangkok, in order to 'entertain' tourists.

The aim of resorts like the Anantara Elephant Camp is to keep Thailand's elephants employed in dignified conditions, whilst attracting tourists in order to improve the living and working conditions of both the animals and their keepers (known at Anantara as 'mahouts', a Hindi word used by the resort and government in preference to the Thai 'Kwan Chang'). There is no doubt that this was necessary to conserve the elephant: 100 years ago there were 100,000 domestic elephants in Thailand, today only 5,000 remain, half of them in the wild.

The Anantara Resort is set in 168 acres. Its four elephants were sent by the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang. Tourists are offered elephant riding courses for between one and three days. Mahout training packages are available as part of the tourism experience, as are elephant 'driving' lessons, ele bathing and forest trekking.

Mission Statement

A tourism organisation's mission statement is a formal outline of the facility's values and vision. Here is the mission statement developed for the Anantara Elephant Camp. The statement is based on an interview with John Roberts, Anantara Elephant Camp Coordinator:

Image: An elephant and mahout at Anantara. Copyright: Reproduced by kind permission of Anantara Resort and Spa.

"Our mission is to give every guest to Anantara Resort and Spa, Golden Triangle the chance to gain an understanding and a greater appreciation of both the Asian Elephant and the many attractions and history of the Golden Triangle region.

"We will do this by ensuring all our activities are imaginative, entertaining, educational and unique to Anantara. Additional background information will be on hand, before, during and after the activity from a well-stocked library, personally from department members and, when appropriate, from expert speakers.

"We will pay particular attention to allowing, through interaction, all our guests to learn of the intelligence and nobility of the Asian Elephant. It is our intent to engender an interest in the elephant, the threats to the species in the modern world and the efforts of the Thai government to ease the plight of this species.

"We are aware of our responsibility in being stewards of 160 acres of fragile eco-system and several members of an endangered species.

"The elephant camp will research ways in which small, elephant-owning communities can make a living without endangering the life, health and dignity of their charges. We will do this through researching fodder-growing methods, environmentally-friendly energy generation and fine-tuning guest and elephant interaction activities.

"Through careful land, eco-system and species management we will endeavour to protect the native flora and fauna already present on Anantara Resort and Spa, Golden Triangle. Using natural methods we will endeavour to attract many species long since hunted out and provide a natural habitat for in-house bred and released native species."