Tripseed, the Chiang Mai-based B2B destination management company and People and Planet First Verified Social Enterprise, has won Silver in the Local Economic Benefit category at the 2026 Responsible Tourism Awards, Southeast Asia.
The winners were announced on 8 July at ICRTH 2026, the region's responsible tourism conference, in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. Both the conference and ICRT Southeast Asia are chaired by Prof. Dr. Hiram Ting.
Unusually for the category, Tripseed's entry focused on business conduct rather than product. Evidence included Thailand's first publicly available GRI 207-aligned tax disclosure by a DMC, covering the 2024 financial year and showing a tax-to-revenue ratio of 2.36%, 3.1 times the average of a 17-company peer sample.
The company's Economic Distribution Disclosure Initiative (EDDI) identified vehicle transport as the main source of economic leakage from its Central Thailand products; a switch to a locally based, women-led provider lifted estimated provincial retention from around 64% to around 92%, and furthered women's empowerment goals. The judges credited Tripseed with broadening the responsible business agenda.
Ewan Cluckie, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, 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 tax, where our procurement money goes, and how much of a guest's spend is genuinely retained locally. We would be delighted if this encourages other operators, and the trade partners who contract them, to ask for the same evidence."
Cluckie also presented an Impact Story to delegates on measuring local economic benefit. Thailand took three awards in the category, with Local Alike winning Gold and Ban Nai Nang Community in Krabi also receiving Silver.
Tripseed is 70% Thai-owned, majority women-owned, Fair Tax Mark accredited, and reinvests a minimum of 50% of profits into social and environmental initiatives in Thailand.
Read the judges' full citations at: icrt.global/2026-icrt-se-asia-award-citations/
