- Peninsula group to open hotel in Yangon
- French firm to invest in Myanmar’s tourism industry
- Japanese business travellers flock to Myanmar
- Tourists to Inle region surge 50 percent
- Inle floating market nearly disappearing
- Mandalay to build 20 hotels providing over 1400 rooms
- More passports issued in this summer
- Myanmar starts online tour guide services
- Discovering traditional water festival in Myanmar
- Maungmagan beach packed with visitors
Bagan struggles to meet tourism demand
Published on Thursday, 01 November 2012 17:32
A group of tourits viaiting a temple in Bagan (photo - Ko Naw/EMG)
This could be the season to be happy but local hoteliers and tourist guides are finding it hard to manage foreign tourists flocking in droves to Myanmar’s ancient city of Bagan.
Sources from the tourism industry said it would be difficult to get a room and a tour guide in the city especially this November. Some tour companies have even stopped accepting bookings.
The number of tourist arrivals in Bagan has increased by 57 per cent from 120,000 last year, Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung said.
Located in central Myanmar, Bagan is a popular tourist destination with over 2,000 pagodas and temples from the 9th to 13th centuries to visit.
The Bagan Tour Guide Association said most tour guides work as “throughout guides” who accompany tourists during the entire tour, which could include visits to cities outside of Bagan. He also said more locals are now being hired as tour guides by Yangon-based companies.