Yangon, Myanmar — Tourism success ought to not be measured solely by customer arrivals, however by the worth it creates for native folks, cultures, and locations, based on tourism veteran Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya throughout a keynote presentation on the Mekong Tourism Discussion board 2026 held from 16–18 June in Yangon.
Talking below the theme “Tourism for Folks, Journey with Objective” Chattan shared insights drawn from an iconic 37-year profession with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and his present function as Head and Nation Consultant (Thailand) for AirAsia MOVE.
Addressing tourism leaders, policymakers, vacation spot managers, and trade stakeholders from throughout the Higher Mekong Subregion (GMS), he argued that the trade is witnessing a major shift in traveler expectations.
“The trendy traveler not merely desires to see the world,” Chattan mentioned. “They need to join deeply with it, perceive it, and finally depart it barely higher than they discovered it.”
In accordance with Chattan, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a change already underway. After years of unrestricted journey, the worldwide shutdown reminded each vacationers and locations how fragile tourism might be.
“Who would have thought that the tourism trade would collapse throughout COVID?” he requested. “We discovered that tourism can’t be taken with no consideration. Vacationers returned with a higher appreciation for locations, folks, and experiences.”
Drawing on world sustainable tourism analysis, Chattan famous {that a} rising majority of vacationers now search sustainable tourism choices, whereas many are keen to pay extra for lodging and experiences that display a optimistic social and environmental affect.
For locations throughout the Mekong area, he mentioned, the chance lies in transferring past conventional tourism fashions targeted on quantity and towards experiences that encourage studying, connection, and private development.
“The longer term belongs to locations that create higher outcomes for communities whereas delivering richer experiences for guests,” he mentioned.
From Arrivals to Affect
All through the presentation, Chattan challenged the trade’s long-standing reliance on customer numbers as the first measure of success.
“Rising arrivals is essential,” he mentioned. “However extending size of keep and growing native spending typically creates far higher advantages for communities.”
He illustrated the purpose with a private instance.
As a self-described meals fanatic, Chattan mentioned he’s typically keen to journey past main cities to find a single native dish.
That additional journey generates spending on native transportation, eating places, lodging, and small companies, spreading tourism advantages past conventional tourism hubs.
“Typically probably the most useful customer will not be the one who visits probably the most locations,” he mentioned. “It’s the one who stays longer, spends domestically, and connects extra deeply with the vacation spot.”
Authenticity Issues
A recurring theme all through the session was the significance of defending authenticity as tourism grows.
Chattan warned in opposition to the temptation to commercialize locations to the purpose the place they lose the qualities that attracted guests within the first place.
Recalling his time working with a rural tourism group in Thailand, he described how a profitable homestay vacation spot ultimately changed a few of its conventional character with amenities designed to attraction to mass tourism.
Guests, he mentioned, rapidly seen the distinction.
“This isn’t what they travelled for,” he recalled listening to from disenchanted visitors. “Folks come searching for authenticity, not a duplicate of one thing they’ll discover anyplace else.”
The problem for tourism planners, he mentioned, is discovering methods to scale tourism whereas preserving the tradition, heritage, and life that make locations distinctive.
“How will we scale hyper-local gradual journey throughout the GMS with out destroying the very authenticity we try to advertise?” he requested. “That could be a query we should always proceed asking ourselves.”
Communities on the Middle
Chattan harassed that native communities should stay on the coronary heart of tourism growth.
Drawing on his expertise serving to reopen locations in the course of the pandemic, he described how group session grew to become important to rebuilding tourism safely.
Moderately than imposing options from above, native residents have been requested whether or not they needed guests to return and below what situations.
“That is their house,” he mentioned. “Communities know finest what is correct for his or her vacation spot. They need to have a voice in shaping its future.”
He inspired governments and tourism organizations to put money into community-based tourism, native entrepreneurship, workforce coaching, and digital platforms that join vacationers immediately with native experiences.
“Know-how shouldn’t change human interplay,” he mentioned. “It ought to assist create it.”
A Easy Lesson from Yangon
Some of the memorable moments of the presentation got here not from a tourism statistic or case examine, however from a short encounter throughout Chattan’s first day in Myanmar.
Whereas visiting the enduring Shwedagon Pagoda, he bought an admission ticket and was greeted warmly by the vendor.
“She handed me the ticket and mentioned, ‘Welcome, brother.’”
The story drew smiles from the viewers and bolstered the central message of his presentation.
“That transient interplay stayed with me,” he mentioned. “It was real, it was genuine, and it jogged my memory that hospitality is finally about human connection.”
For Chattan, that straightforward alternate represented the true worth of journey.
“Essentially the most sustainable and highly effective type of tourism stays person-to-person interplay,” he mentioned.
Know-how as an Enabler
Trying forward, Chattan mentioned digital platforms can play an essential function in serving to locations unfold tourism advantages extra extensively.
Moderately than concentrating guests in a handful of well-known areas, expertise may also help vacationers uncover native experiences, group enterprises, artisans, guides, homestays, and rising locations throughout the area.
Chattan mentioned platforms comparable to AirAsia MOVE can help this shift by serving to vacationers join with experiences that ship significant financial advantages to native communities whereas creating richer and extra genuine journeys.
He added that AirAsia MOVE’s function will not be solely to maneuver folks from one vacation spot to a different, but additionally to assist make journey extra inclusive, accessible, and linked to the folks and locations that give every journey that means.
“Our duty is to create the situations that permit these connections to occur,” he mentioned.
As locations throughout the Mekong area look to the long run, his message was clear: tourism works finest when it improves lives, protects what makes locations particular, and leaves each guests and communities higher for the expertise.
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