This is a window of opportunity for investors and tourism developers from the Gulf, as companies feel definitely enticed by the new open access to the country, with the two most remarkable developments being Qatar’s Ooredoo investing billions of dollars in Myanmar’s telecom infrastructure and Qatar Airways having opened direct flights from Doha to Yangon in October 2012, as per a report on albawaba.com.
Tourism in Myanmar is witnessing an unprecedented boom with an astounding surge in international tourist arrivals. Tourism receipts were also skyrocketing and reached USD 926 million in 2013 as against some USD 400 million in 2012, according to official government figures. The country is confident that visitor numbers will more than double, from two million in 2012 when the reclusive nation started to make it generally easier for tourists to visit and move around, to five million by 2015, said Sein at a speech he gave earlier this month to tourism organisations in Yangon.
This is the upside of the development. The downside is that the country is in dire need of tourism and hospitality infrastructure and depends to a great extent on foreign investors to build enough hotels, resorts and roads, as well as develop formerly almost inaccessible areas that hold enormous potential for tourism such as the southern island in the Andaman Sea and the northern mountainous regions, which boast South East Asia’s highest mountains but are practically out of reach for tourists due to non-existing roads or airports.
In the tourism sector of Myanmar, practically everything is needed, most of all, hotels and related leisure facilities, together with appropriate infrastructure, the report states. Yangon, for example, is suffering from a strong undersupply in hotel rooms, which has led to extreme price distortions in the hospitality market
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