If you follow this blog frequently you might know that from time to time we publish final master thesis from the students that graduated from the NHTV Master of Arts Tourism Destination Management.

This example is produced by Gloria Crabolu and deals with the topic of ‘Visitor Management at the Bagan Heritage Site’ in Myanmar. Below you can find the executive summary of the paper as well as the whole thesis. Enjoy the read!

Bagan, representing one of the most popular destinations in Myanmar, is facing a sharp increase  in  tourist  arrivals since  the  country  opened  up  to  the  outside  world  in  2011.  Despite  the  economic  benefits  gained  by  tourism, the  site  is  already  facing  damage  which is  harming  both  the conservation of the site and the visitors’ experience.

The aim of this master thesis is to shed light on the current tourism management status and the negative impacts caused by tourism at the Bagan Heritage Site so to give recommendations on how to minimise these and ensure visitors a positive experience.

A  mixed method  approach  was  applied  to  achieve  the  main  goal of  the  thesis  and  research was conducted  throughout  a  period  of  five  months,  from  July  to  November  2015. Being an explorative research the main findings were obtained throughout a period of three weeks spent in Bagan  (September  2015). The field research was characterised by the  participation of two workshops related to the tourism development in Bagan; 11 interviews with stakeholders of the  tourism  industry;  a  survey  of  88  visitors  (84  internationals  and  4  domestics);  and  personal  observations which helped to understand and contextualise the findings resulted from the other  research methods and at the same time document the negative impacts by inspecting the area.

Recommendations  are  given  for  each  specific  aspect  analysed  by  the  researcher. Tailor made recommendations have been formulated in order to be easily and thus efficiently implemented  by the stakeholders involved.

While this research has been  conducted, an open  approach has been utilized regarding the research focus of the study, which could be adjusted at any moment during the research process  in order to reduce the delimitations set.

Show the thesis paper

As mentioned before this master thesis was written by Gloria Crabolu.