Tourism Sector

The Sector Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA) on Tourism in Myanmar was the second SWIA undertaken by MCRB, with guidance from the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). A SWIA is a forward-looking assessment that aims to contribute to preventing and minimising the sector’s negative impacts as well as strengthening and improving the sector’s positive impacts.

Field research took place in 2013/2014 in six tourism destinations across Myanmar.

The Myanmar Tourism SWIA put detailed information on potential impacts of the sector into the public domain for uptake and use by a wide range of audiences.  It assessed not only localised and cumulative impacts on individuals and groups that may arise from tourism in specific locations, but also the sector’s potential impacts on Myanmar society as a whole and the choices to be made.

This was important in 2015 because:

• Myanmar was facing a rapid increase in tourist arrivals which had the potential to create significant positive impacts for job creation and poverty alleviation.  However, some of Myanmar’s flagship sites such as Bagan, Inle and Kyaiktiyo, were already under environmental and social pressure from the effects of tourism, which was affecting the livelihoods of local inhabitants and long-term viability of these places as tourism destinations.

• Even though the country was emerging from decades of ethnic conflict, authoritarian rule and economic isolation it is, and will remain for some time, a high-risk country with poor governance. An understanding of the potential impacts of the sector is necessary to improve the outcomes for Myanmar and its people.

• Responsible business conduct in the Tourism sector in Myanmar therefore required heightened human rights due diligence to determine what impacts business activities may have on society, including on human rights.  This must include robust approaches to managing those impacts. The Tourism SWIA was intended to be a resource for these efforts.

The SWIA made recommendations to government, businesses, civil society groups, tourists and other stakeholders intended to increase positive impacts and reduce negative impacts, building on the framework of the existing government policy on Responsible Tourism (2012).  The recommendations were directed towards government, businesses (and investors in those business), civil society, tourists, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and development partners for Myanmar, and were intended to support wider multistakeholder collaboration.

A supplement to the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business’ (MCRB) Tourism Sector-Wide Impact Assessment outlined the initiatives to promote responsible tourism in Myanmar in 2015 being pursued by other organisations:

Drawing on the SWIA findings, international standards, and follow-up multistakeholder discussions, a  Sector Briefing Note on Biodiversity and Tourism was prepared as a supplement to MCRB’s series of 2018 publications on Biodiversity, Business and Human Rights.

MCRB highlighted a number of issues relating to environmental damage by tourism, or which would undermine prospects for tourism.  This included river, seabed and beach sand mining.  MCRB conducted advocacy on this with national and local governments between 2015 and 2018 particularly relating to sand mining in Ngwesaung, Ngapali and Tanintharyi.

Other topics of concern were inadequate waste management in tourist destinations – this was a major topic of focus in Ngapali during meetings in 2016 and 2017 – and ‘hotel zones’, often associated with land grabs.

Following the SWIA, MCRB partnered with Hanns Seidel Foundation, and the newly formed Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute (MRTI) to co-organise a number of multistakeholder discussions in existing and emerging tourism destinations. Four annual  National Communities and Tourism Conferences were held in Naypyidaw (2015 and 2017),  Kalaw (2018) and Loikaw (2019).     These particularly focussed on making a reality of Community Involvement in Tourism (CIT) (2017).

These events provided opportunities to discuss and promote the many other research, initiatives and guidance being undertaken and contextualised for Myanmar on topics such as conflict sensitivity, hotel sustainability practices, and preventing orphanage tourism.

Other existing and emerging tourism destinations on which MCRB focussed with partners included Tanintharyi Region, Mon and Kayin States (Hpa-an, and Thandaungyi), and Rakhine (Ngapali and Mrauk U).  The tourism potential of Rakhine was the subject of a briefing in 2017 to the Rakhine Advisory Commission led by Kofi Annan, as well as follow up work in 2019 on Mrauk U in support of its planned UNESCO World Heritage listing.

In December 2016 in Dawei, and in May 2017 in Myeik and Kawthaung, MCRB together Fauna and Flora International held extensive discussions with stakeholders in Tanintharyi Region to discuss spatial planning of tourism and other activities in this environmentally sensitive region and jointly presented findings to the Ministry and the Tanintharyi Tourism Development Committee in 2017.

MCRB and partners also did extensive advocacy to government and parliament on the draft Tourism Law between 2016 and 2018, as well as on related issues such as Hotels Policy, Community involved Tourism, and Ecotourism.  The impacts of tourism featured in MCRB’s advocacy and training on effective implementation of the 2015 EIA Procedures, including the need for tourism sector guidelines, and the 2017 draft public participation guidelines.

In 2019, MCRB published a Guide to Respecting Myanmar Culture in the Workplace together with the Myanmar Investment Commission and DICA.  The guide, which was inspired by ‘Dos and Don’ts for Tourists in Myanmar’ is available in English, Myanmar, Chinese and Japanese.  A Russian version, not published by MCRB, is in circulation.

During the COVID pandemic in 2020, MCRB, HSF and MRTI worked closely with the government and other tourism stakeholders to identify options for safe tourism and post-pandemic recovery and contributed to a White Paper.   However, the 1 February 2021 put paid to further work in the sector, as well as severely damaging its chances of recovery, even post-pandemic.