Yangon LIVE Replay: Going Local – Pivoting in the Pandemic

Here’s the event recap of Yangon’s Travel Massive LIVE Event from 20 August – Going Local: Pivoting in the Pandemic.

This event recap was written by Bertie Alexander – leader of Yangon Travel Massive. Bertie is Managing Director of Sampan Travel, creating tailor-made journeys in Myanmar.

Borders remain closed and flights grounded. While international arrivals are suspended tour operators are turning to the local market. In this online event, we spoke with Su Mon Oo of Moken Cruises and Jochen Meissner of Uncharted Horizons, about how they have adapted their businesses for domestic travellers.

Catch the LIVE Event recording below: 

Over the River

Su Mon has been working in the tourism industry for 13 years, not just in Myanmar but also in Singapore and Thailand. For the last 5 years, she has worked with cruise ships and in 2019 she began to build the Moken Treasure – a luxury boat to sail between the islands of the Mergui Archipelago. The boat was completed in March 2020 and launched just as the pandemic arrived in Myanmar.

“When we launched the boat we already had bookings for April. But the government announced that all of the islands had to be closed in the middle of March. So we had to cancel all bookings and brought the boat back to Yangon.”

The team rested for two months but then realized that they would have to start again at some point in spite of the pandemic.

“We had a boat in Yangon and people did not want to take flights and busses. They were looking for short holidays outside of Yangon. We have a perfect size – just five cabins, so not a lot of people. Thirteen people maximum.”

Until she can return to the Archipelago, Moken Cruises takes guests over the Yangon River and down the Twante Canal to visit local villages, pagodas, and artisans.

We asked, how was Su Mon promoting the cruise?

“Myanmar is heavily using Facebook. We tried to do boosting but it is very general. The market we have for the cruise is a niche market. Not everyone is interested, not everyone is willing to spend that amount of money on one night. What has [generated] more organic enquiries is special interest groups on Facebook. Also, travel articles in local newspapers and magazines.”

However, marketing a new product of a new company was difficult so Su Mon began partnering with more well-known brands such as bar-hopping Elephant Coach and luxury hotel Belmond Governor’s Residence. She has also partnered with Jochen and Uncharted Horizons …

Jochen first came to Myanmar 15 years ago. He spent six months on a volunteer project in Bagan in 2006 and “fell in love”. He continued to return each year and in 2012 took over a small eco-lodge at Ngapali Beach. While working there he indulged his passion for cycling, taking his mountain bike out to explore the areas away from the beach.

“Beautiful, untouched villages and countryside! Super friendly people. This is when the idea was born. I scratched together my last pennies and bought six proper mountain bikes and began offering tours to guests from our hotel but then from other hotels and it became really popular.”

He came to the realization that what he wanted to do was not hotel management but bike tours. In January 2015 he moved to Yangon and with a local partner set up Uncharted Horizons.

Jochen mainly runs tours around Yangon but can arrange trips to further-flung parts of the country. The place where he has “lost his heart” is Chin State where he takes guests hiking and motorbiking.

Tourist-phobia?

In mid-March, as fears of a virus outbreak in Myanmar grew Uncharted Horizons was one of the first companies to announce that they would be postponing all their tours.

“How can I guarantee the safety of my guides and my guests? But especially the people in the communities we visit?” Jochen says. “There is very little access to healthcare and no one knew how this situation was going to turn out. I could not take the risk. Luckily this happened at the end of March, the end of the [tourism high] season. If this had happened in November or December it would have been a complete disaster.”

Shut throughout April and May, in June Jochen went out by himself to see how the villagers would react to visitors. He was already receiving enquiries from expats in Yangon and slowly he began running tours again: cycling straight out into the rice fields so to avoid crowds.

Jochen says that he has not come across “any negative experiences” when returning to the villages. In fact, he said that people such as the tea shop owners and the boat drivers were happy to see him and his clients again.

Su Mon says she was very worried about the reaction of the communities at the beginning and made precautions about ensuring that there was adequate access to hand sanitizer and masks on her cruise. However, when she travelled to the villages herself she did not see that much concern. “Everyone knows that there are no international tourists coming in.”

Despite the economic pain, both Jochen and Su Mon believe that the government is smart not to be letting international tourists into the country considering the situation in Europe and the USA, where, in Jochen’s opinion, the situation is “absolutely not under control.”

“The damage would be much bigger if they let tourists in too early. And when you have cases in these villages, then you have a real problem. I don’t even want to imagine what could happen.”

This is the fear. And this is why the tourism industry needs to be even more strict and cautious than any other.

Su Mon says, “If one case is found in the villages due to tourism then that is it. Even if the government allows entry, the communities will not permit outsiders to enter.”

On the Up

Jochen’s tours seem perfect for the times – offering people a chance to escape the busy city and embrace the fresh air and empty spaces. Some say that Uncharted Horizons is the only tour operator in Myanmar that is still busy. We ask Jochen if that is true:

“Well, we could be busier! But it’s OK … Now is the low season. So many tour operators do not really feel the effect. We will feel this in September, October, November when the international tourists usually come back. Because they will not come back this year.”

Like Su Mon, Jochen focuses his marketing on Facebook. “If you don’t have Facebook in Myanmar you don’t exist.”

Jochen doesn’t spend money but has a knack for the social media platform. A picture of him traversing along a historic British water pipe in the suburbs of Northern Yangon went viral and gained his Page 5,000 new Likes. And, one suspects, new bookings.

Do they have any tips for other people running similar-sized companies looking to adapt?

Su Mon says that it is vital that experience providers think out of the box and be creative in order to stay in the game.

Jochen agrees:

“You have to be innovative. You have to be flexible. You have to understand your guests: what they want, what they are looking for. Don’t rely on the standard of your old product. Just because your product sold well in the past, it doesn’t mean that it is the right product to sell now and in the future. Always try to be ahead of the competition. The copy-cats will follow anyway. You need to be two steps ahead …”

Follow Bertie Alexander on Travel Massive to connect with him.