iving Irrawaddy Dolphin Project is a social business promoting sustainable practices under the license of Burma Dolphins Ltd., a local travel company in Mandalay, Myanmar. The project was set to protect the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins and preserve a unique tradition of cooperative fishing while creating job opportunities in local areas through community-based tourism.
Continue reading
Myanmar’s military junta arrested prominent travel executive and champion of responsible tourism, Myo Min Daw, in the early hours of 23 September.
Reports suggest he was charged under the penal code section 505a that restricts freedom of speech and participation in democracy demonstrations. Reliable sources fear he may have been initially taken to a notorious detention centre where detainees suffer abuse and torture. It is now very likely he is in custody at Yangon’s Insein prison, equally notorious for its inhumane conditions, abuse of inmates and mental and physical torture.
Details are sketchy as both Myo Min Zaw’s Facebook and Twitter accounts closed or were deactivated after he was arrested at his Yangon residence in the presence of his wife and son.
Reliable sources that keep a check on the situation in Myanmar noted the official news media focuses on the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism’s bold assertions that it will reopen tourist destinations to kick start economic recovery. At the same time, the military regime blames all the country’s ills on the Covid-19 pandemic. But the reality on the ground differs dramatically as the military regime is carrying out arrests and putting tourism entrepreneurs behind bars.
One brave comment* questioned the military regime’s pledge to support inclusive development, saying it was a message for just a “certain group only… while thousands of small tourism businesses struggle to stay afloat. We are facing two storms in Myanmar – Covid and the Coup, the latter being a much bigger one. We have to ask if you can’t provide safety for your own people (including travel industry people), how can you ensure the safety of international visitors.”
Tourism executives, mostly supporters of the Mekong region’s responsible tourism projects in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, expressed their grave concern over the safety of travel industry executives and staff detained in Myanmar and called for their immediate release. It is understood they are privately contacting top officials in Myanmar’s tourism ministry to ask for more information and assurances on Myo Min Zaw’s safety and welfare as he awaits trial and sentencing in Insein prison.
Independent organisations estimate that more than 8,000 citizens have been detained since the 1 February military coup with more than 1,000 fatalities, mostly victims of military regime attacks on unarmed civilians who were demonstrating for the return of democracy.
Myo Min Zaw is the founder of Inle Canoe Lady and Bagan’s Goat-Keeping Tours, both award-winning innovative travel experiences.
His Inle Lake venture launched in 2017 supports a community of women residents who offer canoe trips through the lake’s Pauk Par village. He called them “Inle Lake’s Gondolas.”
The Inle travel experience features in the Experience Mekong Collection that supports SMEs in the Mekong Region under the auspice of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office*. It is among 10 tourism projects in Myanmar that the Mekong Region’s MTCO and its marketing arm, Destination Mekong, showcase for their responsible tourism content.
Myo Min Zaw’s career in tourism spans 20 years, starting as a professional English and Italian speaking tour guide. He later established responsible tourism projects and most recently, he founded the non-government organisation ‘Tourism for All, Myanmar’ community. It supports the creation of essential services in Myanmar’s tourism, such as donating rubbish bins, first-aid kits, community toilets, educational tools and a recycled paper bag campaign.
In early December 2018, his Inle Lake project won the prize for Best Tourism Product for Empowerment at the Myanmar Responsible Tourism Awards presented by the Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute.
He also participated as a panellist and workshop facilitator at NCCT (National Conference on Community and Tourism) 2019 on responsible tourism and received the Green Microphone Award from Slovenia 2019 (UNWTO affiliated).
*Comments are not attributed as they were given under the strictest conditions of anonymity.
**The Greater Mekong Subregion’s MTCO is funded by the tourism ministries of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam and is supported by the Asian Development Bank.
Source: https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2021/09/tourism-guru-detained-in-myanmar/
Hla Day collaborates
with Myanmar artisans, disadvantaged groups and small
businesses to design, develop and sell handmade-
Myanmar products. Hla Day aims to capture unique
flavors of the Myanmar design by improvising traditional
skills and sourcing all the materials locally.
Exploration Travel Myanmar has announced a new tour that visits the Unesco World heritage temples of Bagan virtually of course.
In the first week of operation, the company says it has sold several tours to clients from tour operators in Germany and the Netherlands and is planning to expand to other tour operators worldwide and other locations in Myanmar.
According to Exploration’s Managing Director, Edwin Briels, the main reason to launch these virtual tours is to “create jobs and income for Bagan based tourist guides who have been deprived of any income for since March last year.
Overseas tour operators can book a private tour in Bagan that lasts about 45 minutes, using Zoom software. The guide has a camera with stabiliser, an electric bike and a mobile phone connection and takes the clients along a predetermined route explaining the history of Bagan, the lifestyles in villages while showing some of the highlighted temples such as Ananda and the Dhammayangyi temple.
During the tour, clients can interact with the guide and request specific camera in various directions. In much the same way as an in-person tour, they can ask questions while the private guide acts as their eyes and ears on the ground.
Briels said clients could ask family members or friends to join the tour from the comfort of their own home. The service is limited to a group of no more than 10 persons.
“We have also received requests from clients who visited Bagan in the past and want to re-visit with the same guide so they can also show their family members what they experienced pre-Covid times.”
See a short video of Exploration’s virtual Bagan tour on YouTube
The company has been restructuring and is actively adapting to the new normal since the Myanmar government closed international airports in April 2020.
After the first Covid-19 wave, the company took over Grasshopper Adventures Myanmar aiming to offer more nature experiences, cycling biking, trekking and kayaking tours.
It also re-focused on the local Myanmar and expatriates market in Yangon and created new experiences within Yangon. Recently the company re-opened its Lalay Lodge in Ngapali beach after successfully passing the Myanmar government Covid-19 safety regulations.
Exploration Travel is the first DMC in Myanmar offer virtual tours after having seen the success of similar ventures in Singapore and from the start-up www.virtualtrips.io which recently gained funding.
Read more: https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2021/01/zoom-enables-virtual-guided-tours/
In light of the serious situation in Myanmar, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, with the support of Lux-Development, prepared a survey instrument to try to identify the key issues that micro, small and medium tourism businesses (MSMEs) are facing and to use this information in the months ahead to address some of the impacts.
Continue reading
Elephants are the biggest victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, literally. There is a danger that many elephants may starve to death with no tourists visiting camps and sanctuaries across South East Asia. The warning from the World Elephant Foundation.
Continue reading
Khiri Reach, the charitable arm of Khiri Travel, has been active helping communities in Asia impacted by the Covid-19 crisis.
Its focus has been on marginalized communities, many of them in long-standing relationships with Khiri Travel, such as local families, artisans or community based projects that were regularly visited by tours before lockdown.
Continue reading
Public Voting open to support small responsible businesses during these challenging times
Continue reading
Seeking nominations of inspiring, dedicated and innovative leaders in travel and tourism in the Greater Mekong Subregion
Continue reading
A golden mystery up heaved itself on the horizon – a beautiful, winking wonder that blazed in the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim dome nor Hindu temple spire,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in 1898. “There’s the old Shway Dagon,” said his companion. “This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know.”
Continue reading