A delegation from Thailand’s tourism industry met with members of the Myanmar tourism industry to explore options for promoting tourism.

A DELEGATION of 30 travel industry representatives from Thailand visited Myanmar from July 16 to 19 with the aim of developing cooperation in the tourism sector between the two countries.

The delegation was led by Ms Tunyaratt Achariyachai, chairperson of Thailand’s Standing Committee on Tourism of the Senate (SSC), and included 14 senators from the committee as well as 15 other travel industry representatives.

The group met in Yangon on July 16 with officials from the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism, Myanmar Marketing Committee, Union of Myanmar Travel Association, Myanmar Hoteliers Association and the Thai embassy in Myanmar.

Ms Tunyaratt said at the meeting that tourism can have a direct, positive effect on people at the grassroots level, especially in economic terms.

“If we work to export the cultural products and traditions of Myanmar and Thailand, it can help promote tourism and raise understanding about these two countries,” she said.

A spokesperson from Myanmar’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism told the meeting that a number of steps could be taken to increase cooperation between Myanmar and Thailand in the tourism sector.

These included “enhancing participation in tourism marketing, tourism manpower development, investment and other tourism activities; encouraging the implementation of joint tour packages for Buddhist pilgrimage tourism under the ASEAN-India Buddhist Pilgrimage tourism project; facilitating easier travel through border entry points; encouraging public-private partnerships in tourism development and marketing; and establishing more scholarship programs for tourism officials in areas such as tourism management, marketing and information technology”.

Mr Pradech Phayakvichien, an advisor to SSC, told The Myanmar Times that the Thai delegation’s trip to Myanmar – which also included visits to Mandalay and Bagan – was aimed at promoting friendship between the two countries and determining how to boost cooperation in tourism.

“After the trip, we will make recommendations to the Thai government. … We want to increase the numbers of Thai and Myanmar travellers between two countries, and we also want to attract more tourists from other countries to Thailand and Myanmar,” he said.

Mr Pradech said there was plenty of potential to promote Myanmar and Thailand as a single destination, such as through Buddhist circuit packages and pilgrimage tours.

“The options would increase if there were more direct flights between Thailand and Myanmar through secondary airports, including Bagan and Mandalay in Myanmar, and Chiang Mai and Phuket in Thailand,” he said.

“Besides governmental collaboration, we should look forward to seeing more cooperation from the private sectors in both countries in terms of tourism promotion,” he said.

Mr Pradech acknowledged that there was plenty of work ahead, pointing out that the World Tourism Organisation has forecast that global tourism would drop 4 to 6 percent this year.

“Thailand has been affected by the global economic recession as well as the flu epidemic. Tourist arrivals in the first six months of this year have been down compared with last year but we hope arrivals will bounce back a little bit in the second part of the year,” he said.

Mr Barsarn Bunnag, Thailand’s ambassador to Myanmar, said in his opening remarks at the meeting that his country saw about 72,000 visitors from Myanmar from June 2008 to June 2009.

“From January to May of this year, more than 16,000 Thai tourists visited Myanmar,” he said.

To promote tourism, Thailand earlier this year launched a visa fee exemption program. Originally intended to last from March to June, it has now been extended through March 2010, he said.