THE history of Myanmar tourism dates back to the lifetime of the lord Buddha. The two merchant brothers Tapussa and Balika, who were from Okalapa, as Yangon was known then, would today have been classed as Foreign Independent Travellers (FIT) as they trekked to Bodhgaya, the place where Gautama Buddha gained enlightenment.
But most people in the tourism industry today say that the Myanmar tourism market was started by Thomas Cook in the colonial era, before 1948.
U Hpone Thant, secretary of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association, said that Thomas Cook conducted tours to Myanmar for adventurous English travellers. After independence in 1948 many local private travel agencies appeared, including Tharawaddy Maung Maung Tours, Mandalay Tours and Mercury Tours.
“At that time also the Union of Burma (Myanmar) Airways (UBA) had a Tourist Information Service (TIS) to cater for the international tourists visiting Myanmar,” U Hpone Thant said.
In 1962, the Burma (Myanmar) Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) opened a travel agency called Tourist Burma (Myanmar). In 1964, Tourist Burma (Myanmar) was taken over by Corporation No 20 under the Ministry of Trade. All private businesses were nationalised, including the Strand Hotel, President Hotel and Orient Hotel in Yangon, the Tun Hla Hotel in Mandalay and all of the country’s travel agencies.
In 1978, the Tourist Information Service (TIS) and Tourist Burma (Myanmar) were incorporated as the Hotels and Tourism Trade Corporation (Corporation No 20) under the Ministry of Trade.
“In the era when the country was ruled by the Myanma Socialist Programme Party (1962-1988), tourist visas for foreigners were initially limited to a 24-hour day trip but later this was extended to seven days,” U Hpone Thant said.
“Travel destinations were limited to Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Nyaung Oo, Kalaw, and Inle. But for security reasons, tourists were not allowed to stay overnight in Nyaung Shwe and Inle because there were no hotels, but in Taunggyi and Kalaw there were state-owned hotels that could offer accommodation.”
In 1988 the government embarked on a market-oriented economic policy and trade was liberalised. Local and foreign investment was also welcomed in many of the country’s economic sectors, including tourism.
The Hotels and Tourism Law was enacted in 1990 and tourist visas were extended to 14 days. The new Ministry of Hotels and Tourism was set up in 1992 to accelerate the development of tourism in Myanmar and the tourist visas were now extended to 28 days validity.
There are now many licensed tour companies in the industry, including one foreign company, 18 joint-venture companies and many wholly local companies.
The government designated 1996 as the “Visit Myanmar Year” and after 1996 local tourism representatives began to actively take part in major travel fairs around the globe to promote Myanmar as a unique tourist destination.
“The tourism situation before the “Visit Myanmar Year” was a kind of observation period for the industry and then after 1996 Myanmar tourism began to grow gradually,” said U Hpone Thant, who is also a director of Swiftwinds Travels & Tours Company.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the number of foreign tourist arrivals from 1992-1995 was 317,896, with revenue of US$107.78 million. From 1996-2003 the country attracted 1,603,364 tourists and tourism brought in approximately $313.57 million in revenue.
Despite big increases in visitor numbers since Myanmar opened up to tourism in 1988, there was a decline of almost 6pc in 2007 – 248,076 down from 263,514 in 2006.
The figures will almost certainly drop again in 2008 because of Cyclone Nargis. U Hpone Thant said it was important that the tourism industry continued to grow as it could play a major role in economic development.
“Depending on the country, tourism has the potential to be a major driver of economic development. Some countries earn 30 or 40pc of their GDP from tourism,” he said.
He said that there is still a long way to go in Myanmar for tourism to play a similar role in development and investment needed to be made in infrastructure and services.
