Myanmar arrivals up by more than a third

MYANMAR’s Ministry of Hotels & Tourism registered 299,529 foreign visitors entering the country through Yangon and various border checkpoints during the first seven months of the year, a 37.5-per cent increase over the 217,837 tourists received during the same period in 2011.

From January-July, more than 60 per cent of visitors to Myanmar were from Asian source markets, including 48,014 from Thailand – the single largest group by nationality – followed by Japan with 23,242, China with 22,283, and South Korea with 17,799.

There were 65,300 European visitors to Myanmar during the period, representing 23.25 per cent of overall arrivals. France led the region with 15,094 visitors, followed by the UK with 11,124.

FITs made up the single largest group with 118,493 visitors, followed by those on package tours (61,661), business travellers (60,979) and social visa holders (20,323).

Inbound tourist numbers to Myanmar are expected to rise by about 30 per cent during the upcoming peak tourist season from October to April, following a similar trend in 2011-2012.

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