PDA has had many years of experience in promoting income generating activities for rural people as a means of breaking away from the shackles of poverty.  PDA has experimented with many different formulas for increasing peoples income such as promoting cottage industries, small-scale industries an even establishing large rural-based factories producing products that are recognizable in the global market.

The most daunting challenge that development organizations face is identifying income-generating activities suitable for a particular village. So what would be an ideal income-generating activity for an isolated tribal village?

In the year 2001, PDA initiated its first community-based tourism project at Ban Lorcha. PDA-Chiang Rai quickly learned that tourism was a good income generating activity for tribal people. With several thousands of foreign tourists visiting Chiang Rai province “ it was not difficult to see that tourism could be tapped to raise villagers income.

PDA-Chiang Rai has been able to use the lessons learned from implemented the community-based tourism project and apply them at other villages.  As of the year 2009, another six villages have benefited from community-based tourism activities.