Tourism researchers from the University have helped launch a charity initiative in Myanmar (Burma) established by democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Dr Mark Hampton, an expert on the role of tourism in developing countries, was invited to deliver the inaugural lecture at the launch of a new hospitality training academy in Myanmar during a recent research visit to that country to study its fledgling coastal tourism industry.
As part of the three-week research project, which involved interviews with more than 20 representatives of the local tourism industry, Dr Hampton and fellow researcher Dr Julia Jeyacheya, both of the University’s Kent Business School, provided a series of findings to the Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism on coastal tourism and local impacts in the resort of Ngapali beach.
Following that, Dr Hampton was invited to give the inaugural lecture at the launch on 11 November of the new Hospitality and Catering Training Academy, recently set up by Aung San Suu Kyi’s charity.
The lecture, on Tourism in Asia, saw Dr Hampton talk about some of the benefits tourism can bring to Asia. He told around 100 students that Myanmar has a tourism sector growing at an ‘almost exponential rate’ but is well positioned to learn key lessons from other tourism destinations in Asia.
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Laureate and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. She also heads the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity named after her late mother.