Sharing is caring!

On October 31^st, 2019, ASSET-H&C organized a conference on responsible business in tourism and hospitality at the Esperado Lake View Hotel in Yangon (Myanmar).  

CONFERENCE ON RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

With 1.3 billion people traveling the world every year, tourism has the potential to enhance both local and global economic development, to create large direct and indirect employment opportunities and to promote cross-cultural exchanges and understanding. However, the industry can also have negative effects, including pressure on natural resources, changes in local cultures, induced inflation, etc. Redefining tourism development is primarily a moral and ethical issue, so that tourism can remain a great lever for development and peace.

Around 80 guests, including representatives from both the Myanmar and French public sector, the tourism and hospitality industry, the educational sector and NGOs joined the event. Inspiring speakers came from different countries of the region to exchange on the topic.

The objective of the conference was to exchange ideas and learnings from one another about developing and promoting responsible business practices in tourism & hospitality in Southeast Asia.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Philippe Devaud, Attaché de Coopération at the French Embassy in Myanmar – that sponsored the organization of this event – highlighted the importance of sustainable development. He acknowledged that “the tourism and hospitality sector has an enormous potential to contribute to an inclusive growth. Ecotourism has a promising future ahead and numerous private and public initiatives are ongoing in order to promote a tourism model centered on income generation for the local communities, the sustainable management of natural resources and the conservation of biodiversity.”

During the keynote, Vicky Bowman, Director for Myanmar Center for Responsible Business, provided the participants with a more in-depth insight on what a responsible business is or should be. “Responsible business means business conduct that works for the long-term interests of the country and its people, based on responsible social and environmental performance within the context of international standards.”

The first panel of discussion focused on impact measurement, as a prerequisite for the implementation of a more sustainable business strategy.

Ms. Kelly Macdonald, Co-Founder of the Yangon Bakehouse, a social enterprise training vulnerable women in baking and commercial cookery, shared the positive results of an impact evaluation that enabled them to make the training more cost-efficient and reach more women in need. Ms. Nang Shen Noon, Monitoring and Results Measurement Manager for Swisscontact, mentioned that monitoring allows you to assess the achievement of your objectives in terms of change and improvements in the community and the information collected serves for reporting purposes, as well as decision-making.

Ms. Kyi Kyi Aye, Chairman of the Myanmar Tourism Development Institute described the role of her organization in promoting tourism research advancement in the country. By looking at market strategies at the policy and private sector levels, researchers contribute to a better understanding of the root causes of the current situation and help define what measures should be taken by public and private actors to address some of the issues that have been identified.

Mr. Ko Nyunt, Chairman of Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute, described the methodology recommended by MRTI to reduce single plastic use in hospitality businesses: Each company must establish a green team with a leader involved in operations that will first analyze the current situation. Based on that analysis, the team sets objectives and starts planning some actions to reduce its negative impact on its environment and measure progress on implemented activities.

A similar strategy is implemented by Novotel Yangon, as described by Wa Wa Khine, Executive Housekeeper and head of the hotel’s “Planet 21 Committee” responsible for implementing the ACCOR group’s guidelines on sustainability. She also highlighted the importance of communicating with staff and customers to ensure that they understand and participate in the implemented activities. Staff have to understand how to perform their tasks according to sustainable guidelines, and sharing progress with them keeps them motivated.

A last piece of advice to make efficient impact measurement? You have to believe in the outcome of such measurement. Impact assessment is not only about measuring positive things. The bad things that you identify through measurement may provide the most valuable learning experience, as they help you understand the current situation in order to improve it.

The second panel gathered 4 speakers with great experience in marketing and communication to share their view about communicating on impact.

For Mr. Bertie Lawson, Managing Director of Sampan Travel – a travel agency promoting the idea of travelling and giving back, communication about impact consists mainly of storytelling. The human interaction is a very exciting tourism product to offer. When Sampan Travel shares the stories of the green heroes, there are people at the heart of these stories. Travelers like stories and to meet real, extraordinary people.

Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director of Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office presented the Mekong Moments marketing campaign and travel platform that collaboratively promote the Grand Mekong Subregion. Businesses regardless of type and size encourage their guests, staff, and stakeholders to share their experiences via their own social media accounts by tagging #MekongMoments and the respective hashtag of the experience (hotel, restaurant, destination, attraction, event, tour, shop, etc.). The user- generated content is aggregated to MekongMoments.com and directs traffic to the respective websites of the experiences and businesses.

Yin Myo Su, Founder of Inle Heritage, acknowledged that marketing is a fantastic thing, but it needs to be done with more transparency and accountability. Transparency helps build trust. You may want to achieve a lot of things, but sometimes you don’t succeed because of lack of capacity or other reasons, and that is OK.

Yin Yin Thatun, International Projects Coordinator for AVI, mentioned that communication is also about influencing other actors in the value chain to adopt more responsible practices. Communication is also about educating. A responsible business needs to invite consumers to think about the way that they are consuming.

In his closing remarks, Graham Harper, Director of Sustainability and Social Responsibility for PATA, highlighted a few words that had been said along the evening to summarize the exchanges: “We cannot manage what we do not measure, in the same way as we cannot market what you do not measure. Start small because everything is possible. Let’s begin!”

The event ended with a networking cocktail of tasteful products made by La Boulangerie Française in Yangon, a social enterprise training vulnerable youth in baking and pastry.

ASSET-H&C wishes to thank the following partners for this event: the French Embassy in Yangon and the French Development Agency.