CHIANG MAI, Thailand, 14 July 2026: Tripseed, the Chiang Mai-based B2B destination management company, has been awarded silver in the Local Economic Benefit category at the 2026 Responsible Tourism Awards, Southeast Asia.
The winners were announced last week at the 2026 International Conference on Responsible Tourism and Hospitality (ICRTH) in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.
The awards, hosted by ICRT Southeast Asia under the chairmanship of Prof Dr Hiram Ting, recognise organisations that use tourism to create lasting benefits for local communities across the region.
Prof Ting, who also serves as a Global Chair of the Responsible Tourism Awards alongside Professor Harold Goodwin, chaired ICRTH 2026, which brought delegates from across the region to Sarawak.
Tripseed’s entry focused on business conduct rather than product. The judges recognised the company for responsible business leadership demonstrated through tax transparency, reduced economic leakage, and maximised local economic benefit, and credited it with broadening the responsible business agenda.
Evidence cited in Tripseed’s presentation
Thailand’s first publicly available GRI 207-aligned tax disclosure by a destination management company, covering the 2024 financial year and showing corporate income tax of THB1,176,496.70, a tax-to-revenue ratio of 2.36%, 3.1 times the average of the 17-company peer sample benchmarked for that year; a second annual report covering 2025 was published in May 2026.
Tripseed’s Economic Distribution Disclosure Initiative (EDDI) identified the company’s economic leakage across its touring products, noting that vehicle transport was the main source of leakage for products originating in central Thailand. However, a switch to a locally based, women-led provider in 2025 lifted estimated provincial retention from approximately 64% to approximately 92%
234 multi-day bookings in 2025 generating 2,459 booked days in Thai communities, with multi-day itineraries consistently over 80% of annual guest volume
A shift in guest seasonality from 73% high season in 2024 to 59% high season and 41% low season in 2025, extending reliable income for guides, drivers, accommodation providers, and food vendors
A worker protection policy under which contracted guides receive their full fee if a booking is modified, postponed, or cancelled
Since judging concluded, Tripseed has also become the first business of its kind in the world to be accredited under the Fair Tax Foundation’s new National Business Standard for the Fair Tax Mark.
Tripseed Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer Ewan Cluckie said: “Local economic benefit is one of the most-claimed and least-evidenced ideas in travel. We built our entry on audited figures: what we pay in taxes, where our procurement funds go, and how much of a guest’s spend is genuinely retained locally. We are honoured that the judges recognised that approach, and we would be delighted if this award encourages other operators and the trade partners who contract them to ask for the same evidence.”
(Source: Tripseed)
