Yangon, Nov 24, : Myanmar plans to resume international tourism in the first half of next year, according Wednesday’s Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. The Ministry hopes to receive visitors from the region during the first phase of reopening tourist.
According to the Ministry’s Public Relations and Information Department, this is a connection that the ministry must align with their reopening plans and travel bubbles or travel corridor programs.
A department official said that they are in consultation with private associations and government agencies to ensure that international visitors are received when borders and airports reopen.
After the March 23rd report of the first two Covid-19 positive cases, the country has suspended international commercial passenger flight operations, except for relief flights, medical evacuation, and special flights.All types of visas were also being reissued to foreign nationals from all other countries.
Information Ministry has released a statement saying that land border crossings will be reopened next month with Thailand, ahead of international air travel returning to the first quarter of 2022.
Minister of Information Maung Maung Ohn stated that once our vaccination program meets its targets and if the global infection rates fall, we will resume international air travel in 2022’s first quarter.
The Ministry of Health has released the latest figures.More than 10.4 million people are fully vaccinated, while more than 4.91 million have received the first Covid-19 vaccines.
In August 2018, the Hotels and Tourism Ministry introduced the safety and health protocol for tourism-related businesses that provide services to tourists.
The pandemic that decimated the tourism and hospitality industry forced some hotels and guesthouses into bankruptcy.
According to the Ministry, 1,228 of total 2,259 licensed guesthouses and hotels are now operating in the accommodation sector.This sector is one of the most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in the country.
To get the tourism sector back on track, the Ministry launched the Covid-19 Tourism Relief Plan in 2011.
The three main phrases of the relief plan are survival, reopening, and re-launching.
“The Hotels and Tourism Ministry implemented Phase 1 and 2 before the Covid-19 Third Wave began in our country.The spread of Covid-19 is slowly declining, and we will move to the next phase in order to recover tourism in Myanmar,” a Public Relations and Information Department official stated.
Up to September this year, Myanmar received approximately 100,000 visitors, a decrease of 88 percent compared to last year’s same period.This is due to travel restrictions over Covid-19.
The official stated that although we are hesitant to give an exact number of visitors to Myanmar, if the Covid-19 pandemic situation has been under control, we will receive certain numbers of visitors from the region as well as from Asia and Europe.
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