Myanmar: Funds for innovation

YANGON  UK AID through its Department of International Development (DFID) is funding a competition for Myanmar’s tourism industry, hoping to assist hoteliers and other local operators to develop new travel options in the country.
Local business consultants HamsaHub, claimed competition winners will receive UKP12,712 (USD20,000) to meet around half the cost of setting up new domestic tourism packages.
HamsaHub told the Irrawaddy media that it is managing the competition, launched last week, as part of a wider project identified as the UK’s Business Innovation Facility. HamsaHub is the BIF’s country manager.
Irrawaddy media quoted HamsaHub CEO, Thar Lin Htet, as saying Myanmar’s tourism sector needed to find new approaches to spur tourism growth.
“Hoteliers and tour companies can compete in this competition,” he said. “We’ll also offer consulting services to candidates during the competition period to see whether or not their ideas are practical. Candidates will have to submit their proposal by the end of September, and winners will be announced this October.”
inside no 2Judges will look at the financial benefits for local communities, commercial viability, sustainability and environmental impact.
The actual aid project was initiated 26 July 2013 and continues to 31 December 2017 with UK tax payers shelling out UKP4,970,994, of which around UKP1,203,110 has been spent up to March 2015. Most of the fiscal 2014/2015 payments from DFID, according to the department’s tracking service, went to technical services rendered by Price Waterhouse and Coopers.
Union of Myanmar Travel Association chairman, Aung Myat Kyaw, said that these kind of projects were important for Myanmar’s tourism market, but new directions were driven by the realities of tourist arrival profiles and customer demand.
He suggested if there was a measurable trend that showed a particular travel segment was expanding, such as adventure or heritage tourism, then introducing innovative packages that matched those growth segments would probably succeed.
“There are many tourists with different needs and we must know how to handle them and study their needs,” he said
According to UMTA data, 3 million tourists visited the country last year. The government has projected 5 million arrivals for 2015, and more than 1.5 million tourists visited during the first four months of the year.
HamsaHub is a Myanmar-based consulting firm, led by co-founder, Thuta Aung, who says on his website that he “capitalises on his western education and networks within his home nation.”
It has been appointed as the local country manager for the four-year DFID-funded programme in Myanmar. In the past it had involved similar project that assisted the garment business in the country to find new business avenues.
According to the DFID website, the Burma Innovative Facility funds advice to at least 28 companies in three to four sectors, including tourism, about how they can adjust the way they do business in ways that create more jobs, opportunities, products and services for poor people. The programme ends 31 December 2017.

sourced:ttrweekly.com