YANGON, 11 December 2018: Southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region, a narrow strip down to the nation’s southern tip, recently unveiled plans to boost growth through responsible tourism.
Once part of the Siam and Thai kingdoms, and now sharing a land border with Thailand along the Tenasserim hills, the sought-after and fought-over territory is rich in natural resources. But its legacy from the distant and recent past means it lags behind its Kra Isthmus neighbour Thailand.
A turning point in Tanintharyi fortunes came last week when politicians, diplomats, officials, tourism operators, travel agents, NGOs and environmental groups came together to redirect the region towards tourism.
In the southern Myanmar port of Kawthaung, the Support to Territorial and Administrative Reform Project (STAR) was launched to promote sustainable and responsible tourism, with grants of EUR 1.35 million (USD.5 million) from the Italian Development Agency. The programme will be delivered through European biodiversity and sustainable development experts from the Oikos Institute.
The institute will work with Myanmar’s Nature and Wildlife Conservation division (MoNREC), along with Italian universities, tourism organisations, Architects Without Borders, and accommodation chain Ostello Bello.
But this is no ‘Italian Job’. Oikos has been working in the area for more than a decade, including assisting with the challenges at Myanmar’s one and only marine protected zone, the Lampi Marine National Park in the Mergui Archipelago. The new project is expanding the success on the protected island to the mainland.
The Myanmar government has recognised that tourism can play an important role in the country’s economic development, including at a community level, and recently identified southern Myanmar as a region with untapped potential. While much of the sparsely populated region relies on subsistence agriculture, palm oil production, rubber plantations, forestry and mining, Tanintharyi’s riches are found offshore in the Andaman Sea, with pearl farms, bird’s nests, and fish.
The region has a wide variety of biodiversity, from ridge-to-reef, and also a rich cultural heritage in the semi-nomadic Moken sea gypsies who have gathered, collected and traded sea products for centuries. However, despite having one of the most productive fisheries within Myanmar, the last few decades have seen over-fishing reducing fish stocks, with dynamite fishing wiping out many species on some coral reefs. With limited processing facilities, almost all the bounty of the sea is traded in – or smuggled into – Thailand.
It is the 800 islands scattered off the coast of southern Myanmar that holds the biggest potential for the region. The Mergui Archipelago was off-limits during the decades of military junta rule, but now ‘the forbidden islands’ are opening up to limited tourism. A handful of the islands have been earmarked for resort development, and while some were earlier allocated to cronies, there has been a more transparent open tendering process for selected islands.
New resorts must follow strict environmental guidelines, which include not cutting large trees, no structures on the coral, and no commercial laundry facilities. Soft adventure-focused Boulder Bay Eco-Resort (boulderasia.com) was one of the first to open last year, while barefoot luxury Wa Ale Island Resort (waaleresort.com), with sea turtles nesting on a protected beach, received its first guests staying in its tented villas and tree houses in October this year. This coming weekend will see the opening of the 24-room Awei Pila (aweipila.com), owned by boutique hotelier and balloon safari company Memories Group.
The STAR Project is helping with the establishment of a Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) this year to better promote the region.
One of the participants at the programme launch, Jon Bourbaud, the general manager of Awei Pila, believes a coordinated approach to destination marketing will help everyone involved.
“Raising awareness is always key to promoting a new destination. From previous experience, you can have the most amazing property in the world but if people don’t know anything about the destination or the area, it’s difficult for people to find you,” he explained. “I’ve always had the philosophy with marketing that you should promote the destination first and your property second. You need people to know where they are coming to and what is exciting about visiting the destination, not only that there is a beautiful hotel or resort for people to stay at.”
He sees working together as important. “This is one of the last remaining ‘untouched pieces of paradise’ on earth, the more we can join together to promote the area, assists with strengthening better infrastructure and support services, such as flights, transfer services, pre and post stay experiences for guests.”
Bourbaud says a collective voice is always more influential and works more effectively than a standalone one. “We need to talk to the government and make sure that those around us are aware of what we are doing and the level of service and expectation that our guests are looking for and going to expect.”
It is only since Myanmar’s moves to democracy in 2011 that more visitors have ventured into the region. Between 2011 and 2015 international visitors more than doubled. Last year Kawthaung recorded 340,000 visitors, and the number is likely to be similar for 2018. However, many of these were Thais heading for weekend gambling trips to Grand Andaman Hotel’s casino, a short boat trip from Ranong, and many of the Westerners were only in Kawthaung for a few minutes on visa runs from Thailand.
There are increasing efforts to market the region to Thailand, said the Tanintharyi director of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism U Nyo Aye. “Thailand is just 30 minutes away by boat, and we want more tourists from across the border. Currently, there are many visitors who come on day trips, but we want visitors to stay longer.”
There are only nine accommodation options in Kawthaung area, and mere 200 rooms in the area, according to Oikos Responsible Tourism Advisor Dr Andrea Valentin. “These days, travellers are more sophisticated, and they have higher expectations. In Kawthaung, just like the rest of Myanmar, the hotels don’t provide good value for money, compared to other places.”
She is worried that trash on beaches will also put off visitors. “Tourism has to be planned for the Tanintharyi region, otherwise it will create more problems. There are good prospects for growth, but it needs to be coordinated, and to involve everyone, including communities and villages.”
New overland border crossings with Thailand and better roads in the region mean travel is now easier than before, and now tourists can go on routes previously out-of-bounds for foreigners due to security concerns.
The development of a cycling route along the coast will encourage cycle tours and benefit local communities, says Daniele Alleva, Oikos project manager of STAR. Locals could host visitors, provide services and even make handicrafts, he says. “This might require the authorisation for foreigners to visit places and stay overnight.”
Alleva, who has worked for 30 years in sustainable tourism, warned that the current activities in the region – particularly fishing and forestry – are unsustainable.
“If the seas are overfished, there will be no jobs. If the forests are logged, there will be no jobs. We need to put an end to these unsustainable and uncontrolled activities. Instead, responsible tourism can enable visitors to explore the diverse nature and culture of the region. There is a great potential, this region is not yet discovered. There are islands, beaches, waterfalls, and villages.”
What visitors need are professional and rapid services, says Alleva. “For example, developed itineraries and routes, professional guides, handicraft studio, restaurants serving local cuisine, and activities such as trekking, snorkeling and boat trips.”
He says it will require re-training for locals. “There are other kinds of jobs in tourism, for example, taking tourists snorkeling to see the biodiversity on the coral reef. I am sure being an environmental guide can more profitable than fishing.”
Bourbaud sees the new initiative to provide training for tourism, develop more tourism products and promote sustainable, responsible tourism as something beneficial for the tourism sector and the local economy and communities. “Training is an integral part of tourism development and a responsibility of all stakeholders in both the public and private sector. We can only be as good as our teams allow us to be.”
Because tourism is quite new to the area, it presents new challenges, and the new small boutique resorts face high set-up costs, which guests might not realise or appreciate, as well as high staff-to-guest ratio. “There is a very high cost in the infrastructure development, transportation, procurement and delivery of supplies in this area, which of course needs to be considered with our price point.”
Bourbaud says almost 60% of staff on Awei Pila are from the region, with only two expats, and he hopes that a strong training infrastructure will mean the resort can employ more locals and support local communities. “We also have a responsibility to support the local community as much as possible The more skilled people in the region become, allows also for a greater chance of pre and post experiences for guests in mainland locations and also the development of more tourism products locally will only serve to add greater financial support to the community as a whole.”
Awei Pila is applying for Earth Check international sustainable hotel certification, and as well as banning single-use or non-biodegradable plastics; the resort has a strong commitment of sustainable waste management.
“Responsible tourism is also paramount for a destination such as this. With everything we know about climate change now and the impact of plastics on marine life and our oceans, we have a great responsibility to make sure that we set things up properly from the beginning. We have a great opportunity to collectively see this area turn a page in the current view of tourism in Myanmar, that will not only be of assistance to us but we hope also for the region and the country.”
