Tourism Sector: Tourism Industry In Myanmar Drops Due To Covid-19 Pandemic

Myanmar has seen the decrease of inbound tourists by 55 per cent in the period from January to May, compared to the corresponding period, according to the speech of Vice president U Henry Van Thio in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Tourism Development Central Committee delivered at the meeting (1/2020) of central committee on 7th July.

Myanmar had the increase of inbound tourists by one million in 2019 with 4.4 million, compared to more than 3.5 million in the previous year thanks to the Myanmar Tourism Master Plan 2013–2020 of the ministry that promotes private sector, invites local and foreign investments, participation of locals in tourism industry, adopting local tourism plans, coordination with relevant ministries in relaxing visa rules, easing on limitation of restricted areas for ecotourism, digital market that targets foreign visitors, producing TV programmes with foreign media, organizing roadshows abroad and arrangements of familiarization trip.

The World Tourism Organization has forecasted the number of international travellers to decline by from 850 million to 1.1 billion, with the decrease in income by from US$910 billion to $1.2 trillion and losing employments from 100 to 200 million.

Myanmar has planned to re-launch tourism sector in the third quarter of this year together with ASEAN member countries and Asian countries, implement cross-border tourism with Laos and Cambodia for ‘travel bridge’, create ‘travel bubble’ with Thailand and Viet Nam and expand it to Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Macau where the COVID-19 has successfully controlled.

In his concluding remark, Vice President U Henry Van Thio referred the announcement of World Tourism Organization about development of tourism sector by 40.2 per cent in 2019, and urged for better collaboration in this sector.