The Responsible Ecological Social Tour (REST) programme, which was launched a year ago, is coming under heavy criticism from environmentalists. The programme was launched in a cluster of villages near the Pra Chang mountain in northern Thailand's Phayao province for the purpose of ecotourism. Officials at non-government organisations running the project admit that it has fallen well short of ecological aims.

A big debate is on between the government and environmentalists on whether ecotourism is really the green and sustainable alternative to mass tourism or merely a ploy to open up ecologically sensitive areas to the tourists. Supporters of the programme say that ecotourism will benefit local communities without degrading the environment, while others argue that it will make the communities entirely dependent on tourism at the cost of local resources, and if the tourists do not arrive, they will have no other means to earn their livelihood.

According to Chayant Pholpoke of the Thai Network of Tourism, who participated in the evaluation of the REST project: "Instead of first strengthening their existing economic base, another new activity has been pushed into the lives of the local communities." Other critics argue that given Thailand's feudal structure, most of the income earned from ecotourism is siphoned off by influential individuals and very little reaches the communities.