Burma Tourist Visits To Top 1 Million

[News_Editor]

Burmas well-publicized reforms and a relaxation of visa restrictions are providing its tourist sector with a boost, as visitor numbers are set to rise to one million this year, Thailand-based tourist magazine TTR Weekly reports. Ministry of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung said this year in Burma he expected 600,000 arrivals by air and 400,000 overland up from a total of 800,000 visits last year. "[The] tourism industry is on the rise as a result of political reforms, he said. Yangon International Airport has been receiving an average of 2,300 visitors daily. Concerns remain however, over rapidly rising hotel rates and the lack of proper hotel facilities and infrastructure.

Source: Irrawaddy.org

[SeaVisionBurma]

Myanmar heads for a million

http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2012/12/myanmar-heads-for-a-million/

YANGON, 6 December 2012: Myanmar’s Ministry of Hotels and Tourism expects the country will welcome 1 million international tourist arrivals this year.

Minister Htay Aung said: “An average of 600,000 visitors will arrive in Myanmar by the end of December, while 400,000 visitors will enter the country from border gateways.”

Most of the international visits are related to business as investors flock to the commercial capital, Yangon, to check potential projects, but it gives country a valuable boost in tourism related revenue.

“Yangon International Airport has been receiving an average of 2,300 visitors daily,” the minister added.

Yangon airport is the main entry point for most foreign tourists visiting Myanmar, which received a daily average of 2,000 visitors last month. There is an international airport at Mandalay that could serve international flights, but so far has just a few flights from neighbouring Thailand.

“Myanmar’s tourism industry is on the rise as a result of political reforms, especially after the by-elections in 2012.”

However, stakeholders from the industry have expressed concern over the critical hotel room shortage and the need to improve transport facilities, service and other basic infrastructures to meet demand.

The up-side is the country welcomes travellers after decades of oppressive military rule and is relaxing visa regulations.

The latest statistics show that 448 hotels and guesthouses offer 19,014 rooms in major tourist destinations including the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Taunggyi and Inle Lake.

Myanmar has been struggling to meet demand, but there are also hotels that are exploiting tourists by charging rates three to four times more than a year ago.

The minster talks more about the challenges of improving human resources and infrastructure.

“We need to upgrade service standards, transportation and also upgrade existing hotels and tourist sites including opening new tourist sites.”

The biggest challenge will be to control growth and establish lines for sustainable tourism otherwise it will fall into the trap of over commercialisation and declining service standards that threatens Thailand’s tourism industry.

The country is planning a new international airport close to Yangon and is allowing investors to convert apartments to hotels, adding a further 500 rooms this year.

Meanwhile, Asian Development Bank is preparing a tourism master plan for Myanmar, a move that critics say is too late as development is racing far ahead of those who will evaluate it for the study.

ADB economist, Alfredo Perdiguero, says infrastructure and human development are key constraints on the economy.

“Transport faces lots of obstacles both in the ports and across borders,” he said.

“If you look at capacities you need to have employees. We have certain capacities, but due to the deterioration of the vocational training and the university systems in Myanmar over the last 20 to 30 years they don’t have that skilled labour.”

The government says its tourism policy aims to help ease poverty and empower women, with a “steady” growth of arrivals to benefit local communities and the long-term development of the country.

There were over 800,000 arrivals at all entry points in 2011, up 1.27% from over 790,000 in 2010.

Everyone wants to get into Myanmar while the elevator is on the ground floor. They expect the economy to rise in value rapidly giving them a chance to make a financial killing.

In the tourism field, regional air carriers and international hotel companies are stalking opportunities. Accor is leading the way, a hotel group that was forced to pull out of Myanmar after protesters in Paris objected to it managing hotels in Yangon.

However, once major international chains go into Myanmar, it will bring with it improvements in services and give opportunities for hotel staff to improve their skills at a level they have not been able to achieve working for local hotels.

Thailand’s Dusit International Group is very likely to be involved in setting up a hotel school in Myanmar that will have links to a bachelor degree studies at its college in Bangkok.

[mingalaba]

[Plastic Brontosaurus]

They keep adding more air routes and increasing seat counts into the country (several airlines started flying into Yangon this year, Air Asia added a lot of new flights, Singapore Airlines put on a 777 recently), but there's no increase in hotel beds. I've just been there, in a city like Mawlamyine which has 300,000 inhabitants there's about six hotels, the biggest of which has two dozen rooms or so. This plus the fact that you can't book using credit cards already leads to mad scrambles with foreigners turning up around 8am to see if rooms are available that night and paying cash deposits to secure them. Elsewhere too you may need to use fixers to find hotel rooms if you have not been able to secure one (they usually put you in a hotel that is not listed in Western guidebooks or websites, so may still have rooms available).

The lack of balance between adding airplane seats and creating a matching tourism infrastructure to cope with the increased demand might seriously backfire for Myanmar. The investment climate is so bad (lack of transparency, severe corruption, lack of legal frameworks, etc.) that foreign hotel chains so far have largely shied away from the place. There is so far no indication this is changing.