Though officials eagerly expected to see more than 5 million tourists arriving in Myanmar in 2016, the actual overall tourist arrivals for that year reached only 2.9 million, contracting around 1.7 million to result 38 per cent year-on-year decline in comparison to 2015, which saw a total of 4.68 million visitors.
The drop breaks the consecutive upturn of tourist arrivals in Myanmar in recent years during which the country registered 791,500 arrivals in 2010; 816,400 in 2011; 1.o6 million in 2012; 2.05 million in 2013; 3.08 million in 2014 and 4.68 million in 2015.
In fact, tourist entry into Myanmar has steadily surged since the country opened itself to the outside world with regime change from military rule to civilian governance led by former president Thein Sein, who left the office in March 2016 when the NLD (National League for Democracy) took power following November 2015 general elections.Despite tourism experiencing strong growth and out-performing other sectors of Myanmar’s economy, the first downturn in tourist arrivals during six years may be an alarm for authorities and industry stakeholders to review necessities and strive for improvements.
In Myanmar, tourism is among a set of industries designed into a prioritised development framework for having high potential to play a vital role in pursuit of national development. Also called seven economic pillars, these economic driving-force sectors are agriculture, energy and mining, tourism, financial sector, infrastructure, manufacturing and telecommunications.
As the tourism is a labour-intensive industry, it is forecast to generate over a million new jobs by 2020. Most of these jobs are direct employment in the food and beverage, transport services and accommodation sectors. Total tourism-related employment, including direct, indirect and induced employment generated through industry supply chains, is forecast to create roughly two million new jobs by 2020. The sector provides entry-level employment opportunities in current and emerging destinations around the country for semi- and unskilled workers, with roughly 60% of direct employment positions taken up by women. However, tourism is a diverse and pervasive activity that requires strong coordination of investments by the public and private sectors, experts said. And the roles of government in tourism planning and management are many and varied extending. A wide variety of policies, laws and related procedures will influence the tourism-related measures and tourism governance areas. Coordination across government ministries and departments is critical to promote a whole of government approach to sector development, according to the Myanmar Tourism Master Plan (MTMP). The Myanmar Tourism Master Plan suggests 25 ministries have tourism-related roles and responsibilities. It also notes that “responsible tourism”, as a market-oriented strategic objective that seeks to ‘do no harm’ and maximise the sector’s potential to alleviate poverty, demands a whole of government approach to sector planning and management. It is also an approach that requires close collaboration between the government and associations representing the tourism industry’s private sector.
The MTMP also recommends tourism councils and destination management organisations (DMOs) be formed in each State and Region, and in key destinations to assume local responsibility for tourism planning and management.
A briefing paper that summarises findings from three research strands undertaken to prepare a Human Resource Strategy and Action Plan (HRDSAP) for Myanmar’s tourism sector gives the following recommendations to strengthen governance of the tourism sector:
- Review the membership, roles, responsibilities and remit of the TDC (Tourism Development Committee)
- Assemble a small team of tourism experts to deliver high-level strategic briefings to key ministries and state/regional governments
- Support MOHT (Ministry of Hotels and Tourism) to design and deliver tourism industry awareness trainings for government technical staff
- Support MOHT to design and deliver tourism destination planning awareness trainings for government technical staff • Support MOHT to prepare toolkits to establish and operationalise DMOs (Destination Management Organisations)
- Undertake tourism-related training needs assessments for key ministries
- Support MOHT and MOPF to design and deliver activity and financial planning for MOHT staff in branch offices
- Undertake training needs assessments with key government ministries and departments to gather critical and strategic tourism-related data
- Undertake a review of visitor safety and crisis management protocols and processes
- Develop a public and private sector partnership to produce a 90-minute documentary film on the future of Myanmar’s tourism industry for wide distribution throughout Myanmar
Myanmar is lagging much behind neighbouring countries when it comes to international visitor arrivals. Now the country is emphasising ecotourism and community based tourism as part of its efforts to promote the industry, since it boasts rich natural assets, cultural heritage and a wide variety of ethnic nationalities. Yet, it is left much to get done for the country to uplift the industry to an extent where it is developed to its full potential substantially contributing to the national economy.
Myanmar welcomed 4.68 million tourists in 2015, according to figures from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, another sizeable annual uptick representing a 52 per cent increase on the previous year. Tourist arrivals have surged since a civilian government took power under President Thein Sein, with the number of arrivals climbing from 800,000 in 2011 to 3.08 million in 2014, according to official statistics.
The ministry had previously stated a goal of between 4.5 to 5 million tourists in 2015.
Hotel capacity grew also tremendously between 2015 and 2016. In 2015, they were 1,279 hotels with a total room capacity of 49,946 units. A year later, Myanmar records 1,432 hotels with a total room capacity of 56,433.
The Ministry designated 21 ecotourism sites all across the country where strict rules for development will apply.
Community-based tourism products will be promoted for Indawgyi Lake in Kachin State, Thandaunggyi in Kayin State, the observation of Ayyarwaddy Dolphins around Mandalay as well as Myaing Township in Magway Region, a mostly rural area. Many of these areas have been recognised at the ASEAN Community Based Tourism Award 2o17. According to the ministry’s master plan (2013-2020), tourist arrivals are estimated to hit 7.49 million in 2020.
