The award was won for Sampan’s online magazine Slow Travel Myanmar: encouraging expatriates to travel to offpiste destinations in Myanmar and highlighting hidden stories and local voices.
The PATA Gold Awards recognizes exceptional achievement in a variety of endeavours, rewarding and acknowledging the very best of Asia Pacific Travel Industry. Since its inception in 1984, PATA Gold Awards winning projects has set industry standards for excellence and innovation, serving as examples for others to follow.
Sampan Travel’s magazine was initiated in response to the drop-off in tourist arrivals after the crisis in Rakhine State at the end of 2017. By encouraging domestic travel Sampan aimed to support the tourism industry and local communities as well as improve cross-cultural understanding between locals and expatriates. Slow Travel Myanmar was an attempt to create interesting, wellpresented content representative of the entire country and encourage further exploration.
Upon receiving the award, Managing Director Bertie Alexander Lawson said:
“In the world of COVID, travel will be more considered and travellers will be looking closer to home for enriching, authentic experiences. Domestic and regional travel will take precedence. The urge to “re-wild”, to go on microadventures and to re-acquaint ourselves with our own backyards will become stronger. In this sense, as travellers travel less far, Sampan Travel’s Slow Travel Myanmar is only one chapter in a much bigger, worldwide story.”
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Sampan Travel has been creating hand-crafted journeys through Myanmar since 2013. They were the third tour operator in Myanmar to be certified by Travelife and have been winners at the Myanmar Responsible Tourism Awards in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
More information about the awards and the other winners here: https://www.pata.org/pata-gold-awards
