Myanmar faces hotel shortage as arrivals jump 26 per cent

Jan 30, 2012, 9:27 GMT

Bangkok - Myanmar saw a 26-per-cent jump in international arrivals last year and is facing a hotel room shortage in 2012 if business continues to boom, industry officials said Monday.

Total tourist arrivals to Myanmar last year were 816,369, up from 791,505 in 2010, said Kyi Kyi Aye, a consultant to the government's Myanmar Tourism Board.

Tourism revenues amounted to 319 million dollars last year, compared with 254 million in 2010, she said.

Although the numbers are small when compared with the 19 million tourists who visited neighbouring Thailand last year, the spurt in arrivals have stretched Myanmar's limited tourism-related infrastructure to the limit, Kyi Kyi Aye told a Pacific Asia Travel Association forum in Bangkok.

Myanmar has about 25,000 hotel rooms nationwide with 8,000 in Yangon, the former capital.

Six international-class hotels currently under construction by foreign investors would soon add another 1,400 rooms to the market, but this increase would not be sufficient if demand surges in 2012.

'The challenge is what are we going to do if tourism really booms in 2012,' Kyi Kyi Aye said.

Tour companies specializing in Myanmar said it is already difficult to book rooms and flights.

'We are prepaying hotels now for November just to have a block of rooms available for us,' said Luzi Matzig, director of the Bangkok-based Asian Trails company.

Tourism took off last year in part because a new government in the once-pariah state initiated a host of political reforms, including opening a dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar parliament is discussing amendments to the foreign investment code that might extend tax holidays from three to eight years and the operation period allowed foreign investors in hotel projects from 30 to 60 years, Kyi Kyi Aye said.