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Shining Mai Khao Promoting Ecotourism in Mai Khao, Phuket, Thailand via Youth Capacity Building “Tourists come, Turtles stay” Motto Hikaru Sonida - Cambodia/ Anggun-Indonesia/ Yus-Malaysia/ Daniel- Myanmar/ Som-Thailand/ Chi-Vietnam 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 TEAM INTRODUCTION 3 TEAM NAME AND LOGO 4 GROUP DISCUSSION PROCESS 5 MAI KHAO BACKGROUND INFORMATION 10 Basic Information of Mai Khao 10 The Current Socio-economic Challenges in Mai Khao 14 Turtle Conservation and Environment Programmes in Mai Khao 199 Existing Programmes and The Current Gap 21 PROJECT DESCRIPTION 22 Learning Method 23 Project Implementation Planning 23 Project Preparation Timeline 24 Activity Description 25 Outcomes and Outputs 31 COST ESTIMATION AND FUNDING SOURCES 34 CONCLUSION 37 REFERENCES 39 APPENDIXES 41 2 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Phuket is a world-renowned experiencing tourist destination in Thailand. This island had went through rapid infrastructural development to cater to progressively increasing number of foreign tourists over the last decade. Phuket had experienced development of hotels, resorts and other facilities to cater increasing number of visitors and provided numerous economic opportunities to the majority of Phuket’s local inhabitants. However, these developments came at a cost especially on the island’s environmental and cultural heritage as well as the society’s other attributes. Unlike the rest of Phuket, Mai Khao is an area which is located far from the Phuket City Centre and is regarded to be the last natural beach in Phuket due to its proximity to the Sirinath National Park and relatively low number of tourists. Mai Khao is also facing its own challenges especially on the environment degradation and youth social mobility. The Shining Mai Khao project proposed in this report aims to investment in Mai Khao’s social capital by providing the necessary foundation of knowledge and skills for youth in Mai Khao effectively allowing them to act as agents of change in the society. This four-day capacity building programme to promote ecotourism in Mai Khao envisaged the creation of a sustainable society that can harness Mai Khao’s sense of identity, unique cultural heritage and natural environment for ecotourism as well as development of other tourism products including handicrafts, as part of a long journey towards a sustainable future 2.0 TEAM INTRODUCTION Figure 1. Motto Hikaru Team Members 3 Motto Hikaru team is comprised of six members and they are from different countries and backgrounds. Ms. Sokchea Sonida (Nida) is from Cambodia and she is a recruitment manager of “Recruiting & Learning Delivery Department”, Manulife Cambodia PLC. Ms. Anggun Pesona Intan Puspita (Anggun) is from Indonesia and she is a lecturer and community service program coordinator from PPM School of Management. Mr. Yusrizam Sharifuddin (Yus) from Malaysia is an academic in UM. Mr. Zaw Tu Hkawng (Daniel) is from Myanmar and he is a managing director of the “Rehabilitation Center for Youth” which is running under the “Harvest Evangelical Ministry”. Ms. Katinasamit Kamonchaok (Som) is from Thailand and she is a Judge of the Phuket Provincial Court. Ms Nguyen Minh Thinh (Chi) is from Vietnam and she is a founder and director of Cuong Thinh BLV Social Co., Ltd. 3.0 TEAM NAME AND LOGO The team name is “Motto Hikaru” made of two Japanese words. “Motto” means “More” and “Hikaru” means “Shining”. Therefore, it can literally be translated as “More Shining”. In other words, “Keep Shining and Shining”. Figure 2 is a logo of team “Motto Hikaru” and the six stars represents the six team members and the turtle represents the Mai Khao Beach as it is well-known for turtles’ nesting areas. Team members aspire to make Mai Khao beach to keep on shining. Figure 2. Motto Hikaru Logo 4 4.0 GROUP DISCUSSION PROCESS The goal of this proposed projects is to promote ecotourism in Mai Khao, Phuket via youth capacity building. There are three main objectives of this project which can be represented as three important keywords namely, awareness, skills and inclusivity. Firstly, the project aims to raise awareness among younger generation in Mai Khao on ecotourism and sustainable community. “Skills” represented the project’s objective of building the capacity for younger generation on ecotourism through experiential learning and the final objective is to promote inclusivity among local tourism stakeholders such as hotels, local authorities, turtle conservation and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Figure 3. Supply and Demand Compound Annual Growth in Phuket 5 Table 1. Project Link to Sustainable Development Goals The project’s objectives can be linked to three closely related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) namely Goal 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities, and also Goal 14 on Life Below Water as shown in Figure 3. Table 1 shows cross-linking between the project’s objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The objectives on raising awareness and promoting inclusivity can be linked to all SDGs 8, 11 and 14 goals whereas the second objective addresses SDGs 8 and 14 goals’ respectively. Further elaboration on the link between the project’s objectives and SDGs reveal the importance of achieving the intended overall goal of this project. The Shining Mai Khao project intended to create employment opportunities via ecotourism by focusing on unique natural and cultural heritage of Mai Khao in a sustainable manner. Such employment opportunities should be of equal pay for work of equal value and are accessible to men and women, as well as youth and persons with disabilities. As Phuket is rapidly developing and construction of hotels and resorts are constantly ongoing, it is very important to protect and safeguard Mai Khao’s natural and cultural heritage. Development of Mai Khao should be pursued sustainably. Positive 6 environmental and socio-economic links between Mai Khao and other sub-districts or nearby areas should also be promoted by involving multiple stakeholders. Mai Khao is a beach which is regarded as one of the last natural beach in Phuket, located within the Sirinath National Park and one of the landing sites for turtle nesting area. However, due to environmental degradation and littering, the landing sites in Mai Khao witnessed decreased number of turtles. Therefore, as part of the project’s objectives and SDG Goal 14 in conserving and sustainably use marine coastline and marine resources. As marine turtle is unique to Mai Khao and can be effectively use as unique icon or attraction as well as promotional mascot, this necessitates the need to manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems in a sustainable manner to avoid significant adverse impacts and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans. Furthermore, littering must be stopped and it is important to prevent and significantly reduce all marine pollution especially from land-based human activities. Throughout the IATSS Forum Programme, the team had obtained numerous learning points which are useful for implementation in crafting this project. The takeaway and learning points drawn from the seminars and field trips to Kobe, Kyoto, Toba and Sugashima Island were taken into consideration. The Shining Mai Khao project team had discussed and listing the takeaway points that can be applied to the Mai Khao local community includes: ● Increasing the awareness on sustainable development and sustainable community; ● Importance of preserving local cultural and natural heritage for future generations; ● Preservation of local cultural and natural heritage via sustainable ecotourism; ● Identification and cultivation of unique local features and attractions as differentiating factors for sustainable development via tourism; ● Increasing the awareness, sense of values and sense of belonging among local population towards the city and local area; 7 ● Highlighting the importance of environmental assets in sustainable development. Figure 4. Learning Points from IATSS Forum As represented in Figure 5, from various field trips especially to Toba city field trip on the preservation of Ama culture and natural resources, as well as Yokkaichi’s air-pollution cases; the project team paid high attention on how craft a possible solution to balance between economic growth and environmental preservation. In order to pursue socio- economic development, there is always a risk of compromising of environmental preservation in those particular areas, including in the tourism industry. With this reason, the project team is trying to put more focus to promote ecotourism initiative contributing to economic growth at the same time protected the natural resources. Figure 5. Group Study Discussion Leading to Ecotourism Topic 8 Figure 6. Supply and Demand Compound Annual Growth in Phuket Figure 7. Supply and Demand Compound Annual Growth in Phuket Figure 8. Supply and Demand Compound Annual Growth in Phuket 9 During the course of discussion and background reading, it was discovered that Phuket had experienced more than three times increase in the arrival of tourists since 2006 and there was an 11% growth of total tourist arrival in Phuket in 2016 with 9% increase in hotel room numbers across Phuket. There has always been steady increase of tourist and hotel room supply and as Figure 6 shows, for the year 2015 to 2016, there were more than 30,000 additional hotel rooms made available in hotels across Phuket within a one- year period. In Mai Khao, there is currently only 28 hotels offering around 2,165 rooms for tourists and during the high tourist season especially during the first half of the year, room occupancy rate can be high. For example, during the first half of 2015, 78% of the hotel rooms in Mai Khao were occupied as highlighted in Figure 8. Therefore, to ensure development is being pursued responsibly in Mai Khao to cater for future influx of tourists, sustainable development involving various stakeholders in Mai Khao should be pursued to avoid repeating the same uncontrolled development which can be potentially damaging to the environment in Mai Khao especially the marine turtle nesting areas.

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