Yangon Region Minister for Hotels and Tourism Daw Naw Pan Thinzar Myo commented that some other regions and states in Myanmar habitually invest part of their budget into tourism. Yangon will follow the suit starting with about USD135,000.
During QI–QIII of 2019, over 1.5 million tourists visited Myanmar, an increase of 430,000 compared to the same period of the previous year. The majority of visitors enter the country via Yangon International airport and spend at least one night in Yangon.
While positive growth looks promising for the tourism industry, a considerable part of all the tourists are so-called 'zero dollar' tourists who do not spend money in Myanmar. Curbing zero dollar tourism is yet another important task for the industry and part of the budget will be spent on hunt for unlicensed tour operators, checks on tourist buses and inspection of hotels and tourist areas frequented by zero-dollar tourists.
Besides, as the new Tourism Law enacted in December 2018 now allows regional and state tourism committees to approve investments and construction of hotel projects, the Yangon Region Tourism Committee is going to add some 2,600 new hotel rooms to the city's hotel fund.
Yangon to Allocate Budget to Promote Tourism, Curb Zero Dollar Tours
News in Asia
The Yangon Region government is mulling allocation of funds from the regional budget to promote tourism. It will be the first time for Yangon to spend money to boost growth of tourism in the metro area.