Myanmar is about 30% larger than Thailand and blessed with numerous potential tourist attractions, historical, cultural, and scenic. Unspoiled beaches, beautiful rivers and lakes, and snow-peaked mountains beckon. The country’s handicrafts are varied and of high quality. In addition, its great variety of gemstones could enable it to become a major jewelry center. Today, six “flagship destinations” receive the bulk of tourists: Yangon and the Shwedagon Pagoda, Bagan, Inle Lake, Kyaikhto, Mandalay, and Ngapali beach. But there is a wealth of emerging tourist destinations; among them, Putao, the Myeik archipelago, Nagaland, Hakha, Nat Ma Taung, and Loikaw. These already attract domestic tourists and are now orienting toward international visitors. However, international visitor arrivals are largely confined to a central band of the country, with few tourists going to the north and south. While some visitor arrival data are collected at the regional and state levels, it is not processed in a way that shows regional patterns and the spread of arrivals.
Myanmar has ranked highest among the world’s 20 quickest-growing travel destinations over the past 12 months. The report from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. Vietnam and The Philippines are also regional winners over the past year that made it into the top 10 best performing emerging travel destinations.
Myanmar Tourism Marketing, part of the Myanmar Tourism Federation, reports that the country enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 40.2% in tourism. Puerto Rico had a 31.2% rise and Iran at 27.9%. Also in the top 10 were Vietnam and The Philippines, ranked as the 7th and 8th top performing countries for 2019.
Few countries have faced the same speed and pressure of tourism development that Myanmar now faces. That it has not instituted the regulatory frameworks and infrastructure to accommodate the surge in visitor numbers, despite a desperate need for income, compounds the problem. Tourism growth in many countries, including Thailand, was achieved at the cost of significant negative impacts on many destinations. It is now recognized that developing realistic expectations for expanding tourism while implementing measures that will be needed to protect destinations will be a struggle. The government should immediately take steps to ensure that the full benefits of tourism are realized without overwhelming capacity.
However number of factors will affect how tourism develops. For policy makers, the challenge will be in determining whether the country is ready for the projected levels of arrivals, what forms of tourism will best contribute to poverty reduction and an increase in overall well-being, and how to support responsible tourism objectives. Going by present growth, the industry risks becoming less customer-friendly. Room rates and the cost of other tourist services have already increased. While more investment is expected, there is no guarantee that tourism growth will remain at record levels to absorb such an increase in accommodation. There is also no doubt that competition—both within the country and the region—will help determine the inventory of new rooms. Managing industry expectations and planning for responsible tourism development will be a significant challenge. It is also important to note that the present fascination is in part because Myanmar is unexplored, unspoiled, and considered exotic. Significant levels of poorly managed tourism and negative media coverage could quickly destroy this precious advantage.
Fastest-growing travel destinations…
1. Myanmar 40.2%
2. Puerto Rico 31.2%
3. Iran 27.9%
4. Uzbekistan 27.3%
5. Montenegro 21.4%
6. Egypt 21.1%
7. Vietnam 16.2%
8. The Philippines 15.1%
9. Maldives 14.9%
10. Bahamas 14.6%
11. Qatar 14.5%
12. Armenia 14.4%
12. South Korea 14.4%
13. Turkey 14%
14. Bosnia and Herzegovina 13.7%
15. Tunisia 13.6%
16. Laos 11.5%
17. Azerbaijan 11.4%
18. Israel 10.5%
19. Lithuania 10.1%
20. Kazakhstan 10%
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