This Community-based Tourism Project at Ban Lorcha was awarded the Kinnaree Award for its culture-based tourism activity in Northern Thailand during the 7th Tourism Awards of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) for the year 2008. This award is testimony to this successful model of tourism in which villagers are the owners, operators and leaders in their own destiny. The Community-based Tourism Project at Ban Lorcha was awarded the First Innovative Tourism Product Award by the Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA) during the 7th Mekong Tourism Forum in Yangon, Union of Myanmar April 2002.Ban Lorcha is an Akha hill tribe categorized in the high hill geographical group. They practice upland agriculture and migrated to Thailand from Myanmar, Laos and Southern China. Living in relative cultural isolation and with distinctive linguistic and cultural background, Akha people have lacked a sense of national identity.