Myanmar registers more tourist arrivals

The first two months of this year have witnessed
an influx of tourists to Myanmar.
Photo – Myanmar Times

Tourists coming to Myanmar during the first two months of this year have increased by 22 percent over the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

“We got more than 600,000 international visitors at the end of February, the number of which was greater than the same period in 2016,” U Myint Htwe, director from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism told The Myanmar Times.

However, the overall tourist arrivals last year were only 2.9 million, a decline of 38pc in comparison to the 4.68 million visitors in 2015, according to a new system of collecting data by the ministry, which did not include day trippers with border passes.

“The previous system counted visitors coming through international border checkpoints. But this year’s figures were systematically categorized into tourists, business travelers, day trippers,” according to U Ohn Maung, Union Minister for Hotels and Tourism, who made this comment at the recently held ASEAN Tourism Forum in Singapore.

“However, the overall tourism outlooks are very good, despite the 38pc decline due to a different way of counting foreign visitors,” Ma Hnin Hlwar Kyaw Win, sales manager from Myanmar Tourism Services Company told The Myanmar Times. She said that few visitors to Myanmar are coming from Russia and Japan but tourists from other countries have increased.