Three Myanmar towns of Mawlamyine, Hpa-An and Thibaw are among the destinations in Asia that are seeing the fastest growth in visitors from Europe, according to booking data from millions of European clients of Agoda. com, one of the world’s leading Online Travel Agency based in Singapore
The Myanmar towns join a list of Asia’s top-ten tourist destinations with the largest increase in European visitors in one year. The list comes from the results of a most recent study named Travel Smart performed by Agoda. com that examined which Asian destinations had witnessed the highest growth in hotel bookings in the past 12 months. In the research, Myanmar shared Japan for most number of destinations with three respectively.
Among the Myanmar destinations, Mawlamyine, one of the biggest cities of the country boasting a landscape of colonial-era buildings, comes third in the listing with 90 percent growth in European bookings. Hpa-An, the capital city of Kayin state with a picturesque surroundings, follows Mawlamyine at four with 85 percent. Thibaw, a modest town in northern Shan state known for its historical tourist attractions, comes in at six with 64 percent. Although Myanmar and Japan lead the resultswith most destinations, the Filipino island of Siquijor tops the list for 135 percent growth of European visitors. Bookings for Mawlamyine have escalated to nearly double from 2014. Hpa-An sees European bookings up 85 percent compared to 2015. Because of improvement in infrastructure, some amazing destinations in Myanmar are slowly opening up, said Errol Cooke, the Vice President of Partner Services of Agoda.
Myanmar is currently enjoying a tourism flourish and the authorities have forecast a total of 6 million tourists for 2016 while last year’s overall number was 4.68 million, fairly smaller than the expected 5 million.
