Lilli
Saxer is the General Manager of Impulse Tourism Company, and she
brings years of experience in the field as well as a lifetime of
adventure to the job. She is a native of Switzerland, and grew
up in a small village on the Austrian border. The village was
near a vast forest, and her playmates were the forest animals.
She was educated in the public schools, and then went to
commercial college. She graduated with business skills, many
ideas and a firm determination that her life would never include
an “eight to five” job. She did not want “an ordinary
life”.
She spent the next three years working
temporary jobs at a university, restaurants, shops, a winery,
here and there, any place that offered work and a good
experience. Then she saw an advertisement in the newspaper. A
well-known Swiss travel agency was looking for help, and would
train the new hire. So Lilli applied and was accepted for the
job, contingent on her having a car. Well, she didn’t but her
sister did and her sister was out of town. After one week of
training, Lilli borrowed her sister’s car, left her a note
saying “Back in six months”, and headed out for northern
Africa. That was in 1976, and the drive from Switzerland to
Tunisia was not exactly on superhighways. It was a challenge.
But the company was good to her, and she
worked hard. The work was seasonal, March until November, and
employees who successfully completed a season could choose where
they wanted to spend the next season. The whole world was open
to Lilli, or may have been if she hadn’t done quite so good a
job. The company asked her to return to Tunisia the next year,
and the year following. Then they offered her Morocco, and she
spent two seasons there. After that she headed out to Colombo,
Sri Lanka where she spent seven years.
When she arrived in Sri Lanka, the office was
home to 47 expatriates. By the time she left seven years later,
that number had dwindled to one – Lilli. The civil war had
taken its toll. Living in Sri Lanka went from “paradise” to
a difficult challenge. But the local team was skilled, and she
didn’t mind leaving them in charge so that she could explore
other parts of the world.
The company offered her Africa, the United
States or China as a new home base. She chose China. She was
only there for six months, too short a time to learn the
language, but it was a turning point in her life. Beijing in
1987 was not yet open to the west. Lilli remembers that the
primary colors were brown and beige, with a smattering of blue
and green. Everybody rode bicycles, so she bought one, too. But
there was a problem. The Chinese rode in huge clusters, making
it difficult to change lanes. They knew Beijing, she didn’t.
So how could she let them know that there was a stranger riding
among them, someone who needed a little bit more space than they
customarily provided? After a little bit of problem solving, she
had the answer. Lilli wore a bright red jumper, which definitely
stood out in the brown/beige crowd.
After six months in Beijing, her next stop
was Bangkok. Tourism was booming, and there were a lot of
opportunities. Lilli was there until 1990, then took a two-year
sabbatical and moved to Paris. Restored, she had an offer to go
to Cambodia. It was 1992, and she opened one of the first travel
agencies in the country. Seam Reap was gaining worldwide
acclaim, but it was incredibly difficult to get around the
country. Not only were the existing roads bad, at some points
they were impassable. Bridges were in poor condition or
nonexistent. There was a definite element of danger when people
drove from one town to the other, and foreigners were not
allowed to travel overland. Telephones were scarce, and
communication was primarily by telegram. There was no
government. But Lilli lived there for several years, faced the
obstacles and developed the business.
In 1995 she went to Myan-mar and opened the
very first western tour company. There were huge hurdles to
overcome. The country was still essentially closed, and there
was a dearth of knowledge about tourism and how to develop it.
The country offered incredible opportunities, but the people of
Myan-mar did not understand the mindset of upscale tourists.
They wanted to offer a set program with no opportunities for
deviation. The tourists wanted the flexibility to explore the
country. Lilli worked there for ten years. In a business that
depends on communication, it was a primitive commodity. There
was no telephone, no inter-net, and no news. She was beginning
to feel out of touch with the world. Things don’t move in
Myanmar, she says, and she decided that she needed to return to
“real life”.
She was too young to retire, so last year
Lilli moved to Chiang Mai and became the general manager of
Impulse Tourism Company. She believes that the city has
wonderful opportunities for up-market tourism, but recognizes
the need for infrastructure improvements. She sees the air
pollution as a problem, but also notes that stray dogs and the
ample supply of garbage is also off-putting. She likes its
location and proximity to tribal people and other countries. She
appreciates the culture. She lives and works in San-sai,
choosing country over city life. She has telephones, use of the
internet, ample news on both television and in printed material.
She goes to the movies and keeps up with cultural events. She
has used the ATM for the first time ever. Chiang Mai is like the
t-shirt you see in the Night Bazaar, “Same, same, but
different” from Myan-mar. Not as developed as Europe, it’s a
“good point in between”. A lot of expatriates will agree
with you, Lilli. Welcome to Chiang Mai.
