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By Pan Eiswe Star, Myanmar Times, March 2 - 8, 2009 THE Directorate of Hotels and Tourism hosted a meeting in Yangon on February 21 with representatives from the Myanmar and Thai travel industries, aimed at developing Buddhist pilgrimage tourism among ASEAN countries and India. The meeting, held at Inya Lake Hotel, was attended by officials from the directorate under the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Myanmar Marketing Committee (MMC), Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA), Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) and Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA). The participants included 22 members of TCT and ATTA, as well as Thai travel writers, who were taking part in an educational trip organised by TAT from February 17 to 22 that included important Buddhist sites in northern Thailand and Myanmar. The trip was part of a plan agreed by ASEAN member countries at a meeting in Manila last July to develop Buddhist pilgrimage tourism for ASEAN and India. Mr Surapon Svetasreni, the deputy governor for policy and planning at TAT, said last month's educational trip - which included stops in Chiang Rai, Kengtung, Yangon and Bagan - had three important objectives. "The first aim was to undertake a feasibility study before launching tour packages, which are required by the ASEAN-India project," he said. "The best way to do this is to start with Thailand and Myanmar, which are strong in Buddhist culture. We can see how to combine sites in Thailand with those in Myanmar in a single trip." "The second aim was to set up a meeting venue for our travel agents to have a chance to meet and exchange information with their counterparts," he said. "The last aim was to publicise our cooperation in terms of tourism promotion, which includes Myanmar-Thailand Buddhist circuit packages to attract our third markets," he said. "We'll soon have a clear picture of how we can also connect with India, the birthplace of Buddhism." U Htay Aung, the director general of the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism, said that Myanmar was on track to start contributing to the promotion of pilgrimage tourism in the region. "We can initiate the process of distributing tourism brochures and maps, as well as developing a website," he said. Mr John Mason Florence, the executive director of the Bangkok office of Mekong Tourism, said Buddhist temples were a major draw for western tourists travelling through Asia. "Buddhist religion in Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and other countries is very interesting even for non-Buddhists who don't know much about the religion," he said. The work plan for the development of ASEAN-India Buddhist pilgrimage tourism calls for the promotion of such package tours at international travel fairs - such as the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin and World Travel Mart (WTM) London - to attract western tourists. U Htay Aung said at the meeting that specific itineraries for pilgrimage tours have already been discussed with representatives from Buddhist-majority countries like Cambodia and Laos. "We are also urging non-Buddhist countries like the Philippines and Brunei to get involved in pilgrimage tourism as well," he said. He said that working closely with Thailand on tourism issues provided a golden opportunity for Myanmar to attract more visitors. "Bangkok is a major gateway for tourist arrivals to Myanmar. If we participate in more international travel fairs in cooperation with our neighbour Thailand, it would help attract more visitors to Myanmar as well," he said. Related Article: AYI spreads awareness of yoga Spiritual tourism potential in Bali not fully tapped Yoga in-sync with Islam, experts say
