Tourist flood sees record Myanmar visitor numbers
MYANMAR: A record one million foreign visitors surged into Myanmar
last year, official figures showed Tuesday, as dramatic reforms lured
travellers to the long-isolated nation as it opens to the world.
The tourism ministry reported an almost 30 percent rise in arrivals
in 2012 to 1,060,000, from around 800,000 the year before, as tourists
and business travellers flocked in.
"This is a very outstanding year for the industry. We have never
experienced it before," said Phyoe Wai Yar Zar of the Myanmar Tourism
Board.
Booming visitor numbers have raised fears that the industry will be
unable to cope with the influx, with hotels raising prices as rooms
become ever scarcer.
The tourism ministry figures said the country has just 28,000 rooms
in around 800 hotels. But Phyoe Wai Yar Zar said the sector was not yet
overwhelmed.
"Our current capacity can handle it very well. It is not the optimum
yet," he said, adding that the ministry expects a further increase of 15
percent in 2013. Myanmar has become the darling of the travel industry
as it burnishes its international standing with a raft of changes under
a reformist government, including the election of democracy champion
Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.
The country is also firmly in the sights of foreign investors eager
to get a foothold in one of Asia's last untapped markets.
Earlier this month, state media reported that around 350,000
foreigners had visited the iconic Shwedagon Pagoda in the main city of
Yangon, up from around 80,000 in 2008 when the country's reputation was
tarnished by a bloody junta crackdown on monk protests the previous
year.
AFP
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