Tourists from China and India will be allowed to receive visas on arrival to enter Myanmar in a bid to revive the country’s severely depressed tourism market, according to a plan announced by the junta’s Ministry of Hotel and Tourism.
The date the new visa system will begin has not been announced, but the ministry said it would be a one-year pilot project and that Covid-19 rules and regulations for entering the country would be imposed. These regulations have been dropped in Thailand and other Southeast Asia destinations popular with Chinese and Indian tourists.
The country’s tourism industry has been on the decline since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. It deteriorated further following the 2021 coup.
About 4.3 million foreign tourists visited Myanmar in 2019. The number fell to 230,000 in 2022.
A tour operator in Yangon said almost no western tourists visit Myanmar but some arrive on tourist visas from other Asian countries.
Another tour operator was sceptical that allowing visas on arrival to a country at war that is also experiencing a currency crisis would entice tourists.
”Tourists will not choose a country that is more expensive than other countries and has no stability,” the tour operator told The Irrawaddy. Estimating the number of tourist arrivals is difficult because it depends on a country’s political stability, the source added.
The junta’s Ministry of Hotel and Tourism is attempting to tap the tourism markets of Russia, China and India. Direct flights between Myanmar and Russia’s third largest city, Novosibirsk, began operating on September 5.
Hotel and Tourism minister Thet Thet Khaing told a meeting in early September that the ministry is planning to ease visa restrictions to attract more tourists.
She also urged the tourism officials to prepare in advance for the development of tourism in border areas.
Myanmar allowed Chinese tourists to enter through the visa-on-arrival system in 2018 and 2019, but it was suspended in early 2020 due to the pandemic.
The ministry said it will announce the date of the implementation of its visa on arrival pilot project for China and India soon.
