PATA Adventure and Responsible Tourism Conference, Paro, Bhutan February 2012

The Tigers Nest monastery, Paro Valley

Bhutan, the land of the Thunder Dragon.  Thanks to PATA, The Pacific Asia Travel Association and the Tourism Council of Bhutan, I was able to attend the Kingdom's first international Responsible Tourism Conference in February 2012.  To many Bhutan has almost mythical status as both a tourism and spiritual destination.

From a tourism industry perspective, it is one of the few countries in the world that does not seek to massively increase its tourism industry, and one that actively manages most of its tourism through a rigorously enforced "minimum daily spend", and thorough per-organization of all visits.

My hotel - the Ugyen Phendeyling

Tourists, with the exception of Indian, Bangladeshi, Maldivian and Sri Lankan must pre-organize their visit with an approved and registered Bhutanese operator and pay a minimum spend of $250 per day, per person ($280 if in a group of four or less), making budget travel virtually impossible.

The fee is broken into two components, a $65 royalty that goes directly to healthcare projects, the remainder being used for trips... you pay the same whether in a tent or up to 3 star hotel... but you can upgrade to a variety of higher star accommodations, and of course pay significantly more.

 

Capped Langurs by the Tiger's Nest

Currently Bhutan receives around 33,000 fee paying tourists, with another 11,000 or so mostly Indian visitors.  The full fee includes all transport and is fully guided.  As conference guests we were except from the fee, which also gave us the relatively unusual benefit of being free to do what we wanted without a guide, on top of conference activities and tours.  Just walking around the valley, it was clear that few locals had met with any foreigners before, even in Paro valley, where most tourists will visit at least once.  Something amazing being invited into someone's house who's never met a foreigner before for tea!

Prayer flags are ubiquitous in Bhutan

So what is Bhutan like?  In short, amazing.  Visiting in February where the nights reach minus 15 but with daytime temperatures of plus 15 and stunning blue skies, visible wildlife and a strong Bhutanese culture and identity, it is different.  People are well educated and support their cultural identities and want to maintain this, on the whole.  Pristine environment, windy roads, monasteries, prayer flags, shrines, and some of the most distinctive food ever... the main staple is the chilli pepper, spiced up with even more spicy chillies, served with melted cheese and red rice.  Its the hottest food by far I've ever tasted.

The conference itself was different, probably because of location, and that Bhutan is considered a specialist market.  The opening was by Anna Pollok, a leader in promoting industry wide responsible tourism, and not just a marketable niche product.

 

With the guides in Thimphu

Is Bhutan worth the fee?  Well, that depends whether you've the money or not!  But one thing's certain, they won't be scrapping it in the foreseeable future.  

For Bhutan, Gross National Happiness is the economic system that governs the country's development, it will be interesting to see if this model is exported to other countries in the future and indeed can be maintained in Bhutan long term.  For more pictures click here

The Mekong Discovery Trail: Public education & awareness raising, training and research

Sunset from Kratie riverfront

The UNWTO Mekong Discovery Trail: a destination development, Heritage Trail Project that encompasses themes of Community Based Ecotourism, wildlife viewing tourism (in the case of the critically endangered Mekong (Irrawaddy) Dolphin and Stung Treng Ramsar site), private sector training, local government capacity building as well as setting up a system of trails throughout both of the rural provinces involved.  In many cases there are much similarities with this project and my first post-Master's Degree work on Hadrian's Wall Path in the UK, where I worked on many sub-trails of the main route, all designed as a rural development project.

Trail Map - click to enlarge

Other similarities include the destination being one of the areas least visited by "tourists" (2% of international visitors to Cambodia visit the provinces, many passing through on-route from the popular 4,000 islands destination in Southern Laos to the gem of Cambodia - the Temples of Angkor, I forget the exact figure pre-project for Hadrian's Wall); government involvement and the multi-stakeholder approach.  There similarities end, for Hadrian's wall we put considerable emphasis on physical trail infrastructure and used local Chambers of Commerce to help develop business links, local business marketing support and the private sector to develop trail guides etc.

The Mekong Discovery Trail focuses much on training and support to existing tourism related businesses with a focus on using guides over independent visits.  Interestingly the trail is not actually a single trail, rather a collection of routes (either walking, cycling, motorbike, boating or a combination) based from regional "capitals" of Kratie and Stung Treng that encompasses both project supported Community Based Ecotourism communities and the town areas.  

Kratie sunsets are a main attraction

So why develop a project in this location?  Three main reasons:  Firstly the area is relatively poor, with much of the population living on subsistence agriculture and river based fishing, all of which have conservation impacts on the river (and the dolphins, of which only around 120 remain in Cambodia), secondly Cambodia is seeking to diversify it's tourism industry after the Temples of Angkor and the beaches of Sihanoukville, and thirdly, the target area is on a rapidly developing tourist route for independent travellers in South East Asia, with upwards of 100,000 visitors a year visiting southern Lao and many passing through the target areas on-route to other Cambodian destinations.  The main challenge being to encourage these visitors to stop in either Stung Treng or Kratie Provinces for a few days and the hope they will develop into a destination in themselves.

Rarely can a critically endangered species be seen so easily

Indeed it is a challenge, especially as transport becomes increasingly straightforward, with good roads, reliable and safe bus travel and generally easy visa systems.  The Mekong Discovery Trail effectively competes with other destinations in the region that are more developed and have more impacting scenery (the landscape at this point is largely flat).  Though the area does have many charms, it will never be a primary destination.

The trail project is not stand alone.  It seeks to draw upon support and previous work done by NGOs in the region, especially Mlup Baitong and Cambodian Rural Development Team, who both have developed models of Community Based Ecotourism in various target communities, some of which are well developed.

Impressive colonial architecture in Kratie

Implementation-wise, the project relies heavily on subcontracting, which has benefits and constraints at the same time: on one occasion no less than 18 sub-contracts were in operation.  While this allows a relatively light core team, it does present issues with consultant continuity and in-depth knowledge of the trail's aims and objectives, and can create significant overlap and repetition of work.  Many consultant reports are written, each from a slightly different perspective which presents considerable reading.  Perhaps another constraint is the UNWTO contracting system that puts pressure on consultants to produce deliverables (as they should of course!), however for many provincially based businesses, a true partnership with the project has not been made, and many of the activities are voluntary, sometimes with a tepid local response.

So what has my role been in this?  For much of the latter part of 2011 I have been a subcontractor to the project, at the same time conducting some research as part of a larger research proposal based upon heritage tourism development projects.

Composting Demonstration in Preah Rumkel

I have worked with Live & Learn Environmental Education to develop and support a Waste Management project in the target communities.  This focused on developing appropriate awareness raising materials and transferring Live & Learn's considerable field training experience to local community leaders, from both rural and urban areas.  Additionally, a rural composting scheme was developed and introduced to local communities.  My work involved project resource planning, log frame, developing a long term monitoring and evaluation system and providing project management support, as well as analysis of waste management issues.

Nika trains a vendor by Kratie riverfront

My larger assignment has been managing the teaching and training of English for Tourism component.  English language skills are something that can be readily improved throughout the trail area and help improve local businesses and micro-enterprises work with international tourists.

I developed a comprehensive training programme aimed at a wide audience, including classroom based training and evening classes for guides and hotel staff, on the job training and mentoring to street vendors, transport providers, small restaurants, informal sector guides as well as in the Community Based Ecotourism communities, to homestay operators, vendors, guides and boat operators.  I employed a team of 4 very enthusiastic recent teaching graduates from the Royal University of Phnom Penh who worked in Kratie Town, Stung Treng Town, Preah Rumkel Community, O'Svay Community, Koh Phdao Island, Sambour and Koh Trong Island (click on each for pictures).  As part of the programme I developed a professional competency based training programme using vocational training methods and certificated assessment programme.  Of the 230 trainees that took part in training, 138 were awarded certificates.

ToT Workshop in Kratie

And finally, research: Professionally, I am very interested in how such projects impact local host communities, heritage assets and what benefits they provide.  I am especially interested in looking at how southern Lao, (the 4,000 islands area), has developed without much (if any) development project support and how the Mekong Discovery Trail Project has been designed and implemented, and how successful and relevant it has been.  The issues that interest me include the trail's focus on guided trail leaflets and their use by both tourists and the private sector, and how the trail meets the bulk market of independent travellers.  I am in the process of investigating the possibility of developing this research into a larger PhD proposal looking at the broad topic of improving host community and heritage conservation benefits from tourism.  But more on that later.

For pictures, please click on the following links:

English Language Training Programme
Waste Management Awareness Raising Programme
Preah Rumkel Community (by the Laos Border)
Don Det & Don Khone (4,000 islands, by the Cambodia border, opposite Preah Rumkel)
Stung Treng Town and around
Kratie Town and around
Koh Trong

Ger to Ger Mongolia

The traditional Mongolian home: the Ger

Somewhere I have wanted to visit for many years, and a foundation that has interested me since I first heard about them in early 2011: Mongolia and the Ger to Ger foundation.

Mongolia is a fascinating country and has been a place of legend since I was young, with the "Outer Mongolia" seeming like a fantasy place that did not exist in reality.  Well it does, just an overnight's train journey from Beijing (and just a few days by train from Saigon, just across the border).  Any country as vast as Mongolia, with such a low population with winter temperatures reaching minus 45 Celsius and hot summers, a land of nomadic people living in Gers, is a must to visit.  I won't talk in detail of my holidays, but I will talk a little of the Ger to Ger foundation, and ponder how to develop their model of Community Based Ecotourism for other projects.

Simply Ger to Ger is exactly what it is.  Facilitated trips from one family's Ger (or Yurt, as our Russian friends call them) to another's, lead by a local community member.  Nothing has been upgraded for the tourist "experience", and this was the closest experience to free independent travel I've experienced with a company.  You travel like locals (or if you prefer, trek on foot along valleys and over passes accompanied by a yak drawn cart or pack-horse), and sleep in your own tent (this way you do not infringe on local's hospitality: by tradition if you are a tent-less guest you are given the host's beds for the night, this also helps privacy for both host and guest), and eat local food and drink prepared for you.  I believe their system works very well as true "ecotourism", you meet communities on their terms, and experience their life and their culture without any of the (often subtly) indignities of "improving" facilities and cultures for tourism purposes. 

Bravely (!) crossing a river: Horses essential

I am also very interested in how they operate and, how they are funded and how you, as the tourist, pays.  Firstly, they facilitate trips as opposed to lead them (most of their trips are maximum size of 6 to reduce impact on host communities), this means local transport to the "trail head" and being met by a local "fixer" who charters local transport (in our case a selection of Russian Jeep, horse to cross a river, and pick-up truck to meet our first host family.  The way you pay for the trip is very clear, as this is broken down into a community fee (which goes directly to host communities), transport fee, and any national park fees etc.  The foundation itself is funded by a compulsory pre-trip briefing at their offices in Ulaanbaatar that you must pay for.  The briefing covers aspects of local culture, what to expect and how to use their language guide.  Communities too have been trained in the use of the language guide which is very useful.

Preparing lunch

The model seems to work well, but replicating could be challenging: Mongolian tourism is still low volume, with Ger to Ger definitely a niche market.  Tourism is also highly seasonal, with only around 4 summer months of the main season.  These trips may not be for everyone, but certainly the closest to the mythical "real thing" that is often touted in tourist brochures.  Tourism with dignity.

For pictures, click here.

Community Based Tourism in Trao Reef Locally Managed Marine Reserve

Fishing boat in Trao bay

Trao Reef is a locally run marine protected area project located to the North of Nha Trang City, and is unusual that it was genuinely requested, and run by the local community, who were becoming concerned at falling fish stocks in the bay.  A very different style of project (with a fraction of the funding than the similar project running in Nha Trang at the time) was set up to protect primerily the coral reef in the bay, as well as provide wider benefits to the community.

The Community Team

My role was to evaluate the market for, and design, a community based tourism product suitable for the community.  With a major tourism hub of Nha Trang nearby, there was a market for deeper and more meaningful experiences provided by the typical Nha Trang budget boat trip.

Diving in a lobster cage

Pilot trips were set up and activities, though small scale, were successful.  The biggest challenge was finding and maintaining a suitable and sympathetic tour operator partner in Nha Trang.

Click here for pictures.

The Glass Bottom Basket Boat

Mr Xay and his boat

Basket boats are a traditional coracle used by the poorer fishing communities in central and southern Vietnam, they are also a cultural icon and of intrinsic appeal to visitors.  So why not combine this with a little modern technology and build one out of plastic and install a glass bottom? - perfect for viewing coral in shallow water (they have a very shallow draught), are quiet, suitable for non-swimmers to view coral, and they don't risk spilling petrochemicals over sensitive habitat.  They also have tourism appeal and are relatively cheap and could be purchased using a micro-credit scheme.

The objective of the project was alternative income generation and livelihood support, combined with a little ecotourism, environmental education, guide training and interpretation.  Working with poorer fishers previously involved in squid fishing the project set out to provide comprehensive livelihood support to participants - changing their livelihood from a primary exploitative sector to the tertiary tourism service sector: less people fishing in the marine protected area.

Traditional basket boats

Key components of the project included:

• Finding willing participants in the target group
• Working with the fisheries university to make a prototype boat or less than 6 million VND
• Provided access to micro-credit scheme so participants could purchase their boat
• Developing training programme that included coral reef identification, basic environmental protection, marketing, financial management and basic English
• Developed simple interpretive guide and phonetic language guide
• Developed trials 
• Developed regulations permitting activity and limiting maximum number of operators, linked to wider tourism management plan
• Developed system of cooperation with local operators to provide guests
• Provided on-going start up support to operators 
  
  

Mr Hien

Successes included participants paying off loans in the first season and earning a better income than from fishing..  Five years later participants are still earning a decent livelihood through their basket boats, being joined by others.  The project featured on the BBC Really Wild Show! in the UK.

The most significant challenge was provincial departments took much convincing of the feasibility of the project and the suitability of poor fishers being involved in the tourism industry, which took considerable perseverance to achieve.  Click here for pictures.

Sustainable Tourism Adviser for Hon Mun/Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area Pilot Project

Hon Mun Island, the MPA Core Zone

I first came to Vietnam as a professional Volunteer with the UK based charity VSO.  My two year assignment was the Hon Mun Marine Protected Area Pilot Project in the sunny Vietnamese seaside town of Nha Trang.  The four year project was implemented under IUCN using the project staff sets up and capacity-builds a local management authority method.  Funders included the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank and Danida.

Colourful Corals

The waters of the MPA contained very high diversities of hard and soft coral, as well as abundant marine life.  However, fisheries were declining, and biodiversity and thus livelihoods being lost rapidly.  The project sought to tackle these issues.

My role was as the Sustainable Tourism Adviser to project and MPA Authority, with a specific task of working with the five communities living withing the nine islands that made up the marine protected area, a total of 5,000 people.  

Nha Trang City Beach

I worked with my Vietnamese counterparts within the MPA Authority, ran regular training in sustainable and ecotourism, worked with the local commercial sector, developed tourism micro-projects in the bay, developed interpretive materials and a visitor's centre and worked on tourism training programmes in the island communities.  The project introduced me to the trials and tribulations of the development and NGO sector, as well as the difficulties of working in Vietnam.  I worked with some fabulous local counterparts, built large stone models of coral, worked with a Tourism Professor from my home University in the UK, and got to witness the transformation of a provincial town into a major tourism destination.  And I did get to work with a BBC film crew on the Really Wild Show, and met Michaella Strachan (and took her dancing to the sailing club!), as well as meet some of the worlds leading figures in marine conservation.

Diving

Key tourism activities included the ubiquitous budget party boat trip, small scale beach day resorts, the occasional jet-ski and Vietnam's largest diving destination. 



With retrospect, the main problem of the project was that it failed to take into account its setting.  It was a rural marine conservation project designed for rural communities, not Vietnam's premier and fastest developing beach tourism site.

Boats being serviced before the Tet holiday

For example, a quarter of the budget was spent on sustainable aquaculture projects - villages and aquaculture cages were relocated by the provincial authorities to gain access to the "Most Beautiful Bays in the World Club".  Much emphasis was placed upon the micro-credit scheme, which saw slightly bizarre results including local residents being persuaded to purchase cows (no grazing land available), pigs (pigs died because they were kept in a barrel without light to prevent theft - no training), rabbits (dying due to alcohol poisoning and starvation - rabbits arrived before training), ostrich farming (thankfully this one didn't happen), purchase of bigger fishing nets and lobster fishing, sport net manufacture (people earning 15 cents a day), rattan basket weaving (supported by a local factory, but no mechanism to continue after project funding ended)... and so on.

Scuba diving boats

For my work, as Sustainable Tourism Adviser with a remit to work with local communities, the biggest challenge was the MPA Authority, who wanted to develop their own mainstream tourism business that had no place for local community members.  What was not mentioned in the project description was that four of the communities were living on an island that belonged to the military, and no tourism activities were permitted to take place there.  Also, the provincial development plan stated that all people living within the MPA would be relocated over the course of the following five years, with the islands to be sold off and developed as tourism resorts.

Mr Hien's grandchildren, Hon Mot

Tourism has since boomed in Nha Trang as it has become a popular destination with Vietnamese tourists.  Islanders have been relocated from most villages, and various tourism resorts have been constructed or are in the planning stage throughout the MPA.  The core zone of Hon Mun remains heavily over exploited by tourism, as no curbs have been placed upon tourism numbers, type or activity, and local fishers appear to have been allowed in to fish within the core zone.  Local dive operators have tried to create a dive association to challenge the MPA Authority, but as made little progress: competition is fierce and Nha Trang remains one of the cheapest places in the world to dive.  Click here for pictures.

Hon Mot Community Based Tourism

Judging the cookery competition

A small project I put together as part of the Hon Mun MPA Project was working with local ladies on Hon Mot Island to provide basic tourism training and infrastructure for visitors.  The focus of this was organising cookery  classes (which had the added benefit of sneaking in nutritional and hygiene training too), to which I was the judge in the final competition.

The training remit was simple - teach local participants to make good, cheap, tasty food from locally available ingredients, market it well, and sell to the passing boat trade for a good profit.  The project actually worked well, there was enough trade from independent boat trips to use the facilities on the island, and a small trade developed in providing deck chairs and sun-shades.  Click here for pictures.