community-based tourism

“Please don’t walk around after dark,” Mohan, the village chief, tells us as he shows us around in the late afternoon sun. “We had an elephant come through last night.”

I’m here to learn about the village and its community-based tourism project – both shaped by a single story – involving a British missionary and Nabutautau’s chief, that took place 152 years ago.

If you travel to Myanmar, deep into the country’s arid, central Magway region, along the sacred Irrawaddy River, you’ll come to the tiny township of Myaing, where something very special is brewing.

“I couldn’t have imagined that one day tourists would come to visit my village or my house. Since I joined the CBT and started welcoming tourists, our economic situation has improved a lot.”