Tourism needs to meet Sustainable Development Goals

Development needs are all over the canvas that MAO works in. Every community is the same in a lot of ways in that the needs are the same, but what is not all the same is the feeling from the community about which needs are the most essential. Working together with a community to bring about solutions to problems that they know they have and they want to fix, this will result in development that is not just sexy for advertising but actually is embraced and changes lives.

On our first visits with new communities we work with, we want to learn about the community from the perspective of the people and the leaders in the community. We talk about the demographics of their community, the education situation, local environment, needs and felt needs, etc… This gives us a starting point for relationship that tourism that can impact in a productive and sustainable way. In development training, one thing we learn is that projects will be embraced and development can happen when we address felt needs, even though from our perspective we may see the needs as different than the community. Better to help address felt needs first, whether they are actual needs or not, because in that develops a relationship that shows that you care for the things they care for. From a basis of trust like this, the door opens to all sorts of opportunities. This past year, in one community we stepped too quickly into looking to provide solutions before the trust was established, and it has failed miserably. We gotta build the trust and value the thoughts and feelings of the communities we work in first and foremost. Our goals are to link our company that looks like tourism with a goal of development, but for the communities we work in, tourism is a thing they don’t understand.

We feel that there is so much more potential for tourism to create impact that what it is producing. Tourism is unattainable for so many who work 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, just to make enough to survive off of. However, those who travel to these places, tourism is not only attainable but considered as a right…not a luxury. There is a degree of privilege that exists amongst those who travel that doesn’t exist in the communities they are often going to. For this reason, we believe that tourism needs to make a bigger impact on the villages we work in, and its also the reason we want to champion sustainable tourism development. Tourism needs to be a catalyst toward change and development. I like to look back towards the UN’s SDG’s and consider how we can utilize our own company to reach sustainable development goals, and then how we can partner with other organizations and people who can bring development in a way that is outside of our scope and ability, but are also needs in the communities we work in.

If you’re unfamiliar with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals…

We see potential for tourism to aid in helping promote many, if not all of these goals, and if we don’t have the capacity as MAO, we can link to people who do (#17 Partnerships), and bring about a wholistic form of development along with our goals of creating work and economic growth in remote communities. So far, we’ve chosen to really make investment in a few of these goals, but are not limiting ourselves to only these in the future. There are things that we do that indirectly contribute to other goals, but we want to point out the things that we are intentionally engaging.

Creating opportunity through economy in remote communities to give opportunity for people at home, so that they don’t feel the need to move abroad illegally to a life of certain exploitation. This is why we launched into business in the first place.

Our goal in starting MAO is creating opportunities that protect people and create economic opportunity. The logical conclusion is to invest our profit and link our clients to creating education solutions for families who want to educate their kids, but lack the financials to be able to send their kids to live in education hostels in the city for high school.

We have vision for many things, but lack the resources or skillset to effect change. We love to network and connect with CSO’s, NGO’s and just individuals who have skills that can be useful in the communities we engage. We have the relational trust and want to link our communities to solutions to problems that they have, but are outside our capacity.

Having experience in WASH (Water and Sanitation Health) training, we’ve both provided our hosting families with water filters, as well as partnered (#17) with others to develop village-wide long term solution biosand water filtration systems.

We are constantly seeing our beautiful spots littered with trash. People from the city come out to remote areas for pleasure, and as much as we love people experiencing nature, we don’t love the trash that gets left behind. So we partnered (#17) with Trash Hero to launch a chapter in Lashio and stimulate both a care for the environment and climate action.

Our goal is that by being a link in the chain of development, we can inspire others in the tourism sector to embrace a similar mindset of transformational toursim. There is so much more potential that we need to unlock in the industry, and we all can be part of being a link in the chain to bring development in all the communities that tourism in Myanmar touches.

There are a lot of great sustainable tourism options in Myanmar who are also seeing potential for development to happen. In future posts, we will profile other companies who we know who embrace the 17 SDG’s, who embody these same ideals and promote responsible travel all around Myanmar.

Relationships through Cliff Jumping

There is a village we spend a lot, I mean A LOT of time in from January to June, because its the community that is host to an incredible waterfall adventure that MAO operates. It also happens to be the time of year when the kids have time off school, so more time to come and hang out. When we show up, the kids start chattering and by the time we are ready to guide people down to the falls, a group has formed who both participates in and brings joy to both us and our clients. Our guys have become like heroes for these boys and young men, and have an open door to influence them positively. Lots of young men end up using and becoming addicted to drugs in Northern Shan, as this region is a source of a large amount of production, so we are trying to develop opportunities to influence this younger generation to make wise decisions with their future. A lot of them now want to be guides because the men they look up to work with MAO, and guide in their backyard waterfalls, so we need to capitalize on this relationship capital and start investing in these kids so that they make the foundational wise decisions now to stay committed to school, keep away from drugs and addicting substances, so that in the days of their youth they can pave the way for a future. We are right now in the discussing stage of creating a young men’s group that meets a couple times a month, but have yet to set a plan in motion.

Just on the edge of their village drops a waterfall that we’ve coined Dark Horse Falls, as we feel like it is a dark horse favorite for best waterfall in Myanmar. We’ve compiled a video titles Dark Horse Men to celebrate our MAO guys insanity and the courage of the young generation in the village.

Our Myanmar Adventure Outfitters crew has lots of fun engaging with the local kids and pushing our boundaries and skills. 2019 season is coming to a close as the rains come, so celebrating with this cliff jumping edit.

"I Can't Wait to come to Lashio!"

In chatting with a Yangon expat recently in response to our Instagram Story, they wrote to me, “I can’t wait to come to Lashio!” Investing in this place, seeing all the amazing potential, and building deep relationships here, we are stoked that we are putting Lashio on the map. Indeed, it is an amazing place, but few have seen it the way we see it, and we are excited to hear more people exclaim the same.

We have been working at bridging two areas we work together, and this week we’ve found some great things to help push a little further out. We have taken a couple river trips in a remote backcountry area, and made a couple videos we want to share. The first video we collaborated with Nice Studio out of Lashio to edit our GoPro footage. The second video is what happened when we put some of the same footage through the Cameo app made by Vimeo. They have a very different feel, and we are hoping good media will inspire more to exclaim, “I can’t wait to come to Lashio!”

Changing the Narrative on Lashio

We knew it wouldn't be easy, starting a tour company off the beaten path...in Lashio.  The vision was always to create opportunities for people and communities where there was little opportunity, so going to a place where no one else was doing anything in tourism development was what we were aiming for, but its hard!  A place not known for good tourism experiences, we knew we had to change the narrative on Lashio, change the perception.  

When we first connected with the Ministry of Hotels & Tourism in Lashio, they were excited about us coming and had a vision for getting people to go see pagodas in Lashio, and as worthwhile as some of this can be, we saw so much potential in the diverse & isolated communities outside of the city.  People from Lashio scoffed at the idea that we came to Lashio to start tourism, even their narrative was one of a naysayer.  But we've won over even people from Lashio, as now even locals stop me on the street wanting to do tours with MAO, because we've found places and created experiences even Lashio locals never thought possible.  

With Hsipaw just down the road, our challenge has been to get perhaps 3-5% of people who would stop in Hsipaw to continue on up the road to Lashio, and in actuality we are happy to send people on to Hsipaw.  Hsipaw has some great trekking, and we aren't trying to compete with Hsipaw, but rather create unique experiences that would make both stops worthwhile, electing to help develop tourism throughout Northern Shan State, and not pitting Lashio against Hsipaw or Kyaukme or Naunghkio.  So many great opportunities for authentic adventures in Northern Shan!!!

When we first came to Lashio, water festival had shut the town down, and we were left uninspired.  Reading wikitravel, we found the perception of Lashio was one of a big dirty market town with nothing to do.  It is a big town, one of the biggest in Shan State.  It has an amazing market where all of the diverse communities converge for buying and selling.  It is certainly not such a dirty town in comparison to many places in Myanmar. 

And beyond all this, there are amazing untouched adventures just over the hills of the city.  In my opinion, the best waterfall experience that can be had in all of Myanmar is just outside of Lashio, a feat we've come to achieve by going dozens of times and learning all there is to learn.  But beyond this, MAO has even put some waterfalls on the map that now Lashio's locals know about because we put them on the map.  All of this comes from endless exploration.  North Face, the popular brand, has the slogan "Never Stop Exploring", and we've embraced this mindset.  There is always more to explore, and we are determined to find it, pushing every boundary, leaving no rock unturned.  We've found so many things, and so many places, experiences that few have even encountered with us yet.  For many who have come with us on an adventure, now two years later, there is so much more to do that we didn't even know about two years ago.  

For example, Lashio is famous for hotsprings, but in my opinion, the best hotsprings are not inside the city, but the untouched ones outside of the city, with at least 4 places with amazing hot springs we've only taken a handful of people to, two of which we've never showed to anyone yet.     

Hidden hotspring river

Adventures of Rainy Season

Right now we are in the middle of rainy or monsoon season, which means we can have fun, but it will certainly involve getting muddy and dirty.  Its God's decision, not mine, and we are left to figure out how to have a safe adventure despite environmental changes.  This means that every adventure can look drastically different depending on weather changes.  Some of our pictures are taken in hot season, when the paths are dry and the river is clean and not filled with dirt eroded from the hillsides resulting in a brown slurry that is the rivers in rainy season.  Some things we cannot do, and some things we can do with greater effort, and some things involve getting wet anyways, so why not embrace the rain!!

If you're willing to get dirty and embrace the mud, we can have a lot of fun.  Scroll through the carousel below of fun in rainy season so far.  Some days are sunny, and some are rainy and muddy, so there is lots of adventure to be had still.

Photos are by the amazingly talented Dewi Natalia from Bali.  Check out her work at: www.forasiacheersphotos.format.com.