Tourism
From The Report: Myanmar 2018
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Myanmar is slowly emerging as a tourism destination in a region that is a favourite among travellers worldwide. It has a wealth of attractions to draw visitors from abroad, including Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda and many other diverse cultural and historical sites. One of the main challenges is developing the accompanying tourism infrastructure and ensuring an adequate skills base to keep pace with the sector’s growth. This has proved difficult in the past for some of Myanmar’s neighbours, and many wonder if the country has the foundations in place to do a better job of balancing growth with sustainability and conservation. This chapter contains interviews with Daw Moe Moe Lwin, Director, Yangon Heritage Trust; and Jean Michel Romon, Managing Director, Balloons over Bagan.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Balancing act: Recognition of the need for careful management is key at this time of transition
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Myanmar is slowly emerging as a tourism destination in a region that is a favourite among travellers worldwide. It has a wealth of attractions to draw visitors from abroad, including Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda and its many other diverse cultural and historical sites, Inle Lake’s floating villages and gardens, the Bagan Archaeological Zone and its 2229 Buddhist temples, the Mandalay Palace and Ngapali’s beaches. One of the main challenges is to develop tourism infrastructure and ensure…

Interview

History to build upon: Daw Moe Moe Lwin, Director, Yangon Heritage Trust, on efforts to preserve Yangon’s architectural legacy
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Daw Moe Moe Lwin: Interview How would you assess the interest of foreign investors in preserving Yangon’s heritage buildings? DAW MOE MOE LWIN: Yangon has multiple buildings identified as being historically valuable and part of the country’s architectural and cultural heritage. Following the opening up of the economy in 2011, investors were very keen to invest in Myanmar, and several companies contacted us to gather more information on Yangon’s local heritage and potential investment opportunities. Given…

Analysis

Interior design: Domestic tourism is on the rise, along with an increased desire for foreign travel
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After Myanmar began the transition to democracy, international tourism was not the only segment that thrived. Following decades of restrictions on domestic movement, local people are now largely free to explore the country. This has allowed domestic tourists to travel to previously closed regions to visit family and to make pilgrimages to holy sites, such as pagodas and monasteries that used to be inaccessible. Hitting the Road Domestic tourism demand has therefore taken off in tandem…

Analysis

Come together: Alliances with neighbouring markets could be mutually beneficial
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With the ultimate goal to increase tourism across Southeast Asia, Myanmar is exploring the “two countries, one destination” concept, which seeks to cross-promote tourism with both Cambodia and Thailand. Officials in Myanmar would like to emulate Thailand’s success in attracting foreign tourists – some 32m in 2016 – while Thailand’s operators recognise that Myanmar’s unspoilt landscape is an attraction. In 2016, 490,000 travellers visited both countries on the same trip. Myanmar…

Interview

First steps: Jean Michel Romon, Managing Director, Balloons over Bagan, on the role of domestic tourism and enhancing sector governance
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Interview:Jean Michel Romon With an increase in national income and higher living standards, in what ways do you see domestic tourism shaping the future of the sector as a whole? JEAN MICHEL ROMON: When you break down tourist arrivals in Myanmar, you will notice that there have not been significant variations in the number of foreign arrivals since the country opened up in 2011 and 2012. Since then, Myanmar has registered an average of 1m annual international tourist arrivals. The sector…