Web-picking / TTR: Yangon room glut

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Subject: Web-picking / TTR: Yangon room glut despite Visit Myanmar Year

Yangon room glut despite Visit Myanmar Year

VISIT Myanmar Year is less than two months away but there will be no 
shortage of quality hotels. 
Currently the capital Yangon has too many hotels and several more - like =

the huge Sedona - are under construction. 
Outside of Yangon there is only a few quality hotels. The Novotel 
Mandalay is open since Christmas but most of its 200 rooms remain 
unoccupied. Visit Myanmar Year isn't likely to provide the lift that 
many hotels had expected, as the campaign has failed to impact on the =

world market. 
According to Germaine E Ng of the tourism marketing group MMI 
International Ltd, the hotel proliferation in Yangon has been based on =

the premise that it is "good to get in first and the rooms will be 
filled later." 
"But the reality is that too many hotels have been built for too few 
people." 
Most hoteliers and agents believe that there will be little more than =
a 
20% lift in tourism numbers during the Visit Myanmar Year which begins =

on 1 October and that arrivals will be under 300,000. 
SLORC had originally predicted one million tourists for the promotional =

year and later downgraded the figure to 500,000. 
Ms Ng said there was a wrong view that the tourist trade in Myanmar will =

be centered in Yangon. 
"As a business centre Yangon has an advantage but tourists want to stay =

in Yangon for only a few days and then see the Burmese attractions and =

culture away from the capital." 
Ms Ng said there were not enough flights to Yangon nor to the 
attractions of Mandalay and Pagan. 
The main domestic carrier Air Mandalay was flying with full loads to 
Inle Lake, Mandalay and Pagan. 
THAI flights to Yangon were often full and Myanmar Airlines, the 
national carrier, could not keep up with the demand. 
"It's fairly irrelevant to say that Myanmar can attract one million 
people when there is hardly enough flights to bring in 500,000 
visitors." 
The political unrest has affected the upper-end of the market. 
The Myanmar Embassy says it is processing record numbers of visa 
applications, but most of these are budget travellers. 
The luxury Road to Mandalay cruise ship is operating well below full 
capacity mainly because adverse publicity has been a deterrent for 
affluent travellers who have many other up-market destinations from 
which to choose. 
Agents say that Myanmar has an advantage of being an undiscovered 
country, but there are many other Asian countries that are competing for =

the market. 
SLORC is favouring group travel and discouraging independent travel to =

remote areas which hold a lot of raw appeal. 
"It's the attractions away from the cities where Myanmar has strong 
appeal," said Ms Ng. "Like the Putao district where there is ice on the =

mountains." 
A popular destination which isn't under any travel restrictions is Inle =

Lake which is only an hour's flight away from Yangon. 
Most visitors to the lake are from Europe. Inle Lake covers 145 square =

kilometres and is sheltered by a 5,000 feet high mountain range. The 
lake itself is situated at 2,800 feet above sea level. 

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