Myanmar announces free visa to China, South Korea and Japan

Myanmar will grant free visa allowances to Chinese, South Korean and Japanese nationals from August 1 onward in a bid to promote eco-tourism, according to U Ohn Maung, Minister of Hotel and Tourism, during an economic seminar organised last week by the Thai embassy in Yangon and the Thai Business Association in Myanmar.

The initiative has taken considering the decline in visitors from the West, who have cut short travel to Myanmar in view of the refugee crisis in Rakhine. The ministry of tourism hopes the free visa to Asian countries could compensate the downfall in tourists from the western countries.

U Kyaw Swa Min, Managing Director of Grand Lotus Travel and Tour, said that UK tourist arrivals during the year is down by 40 per cent compared to 2017.

Other tour operators and hotels are considering cost-cutting measures, like granting unpaid leave to employees to cope with the declining income, as most UK travel companies are no longer selling travel packages to Myanmar.

On the other hand, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Mandalay has increased this year, according to the region’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism. “The Chinese ranked first in the list of visitors to Mandalay in the first half of this year,” stated an official from the tourism ministry.

In total, around 230,000 tourists visited Mandalay between January and June this year, which is 5,000 less than that of last year, as revealed by the official data.

The government is expecting tourist arrivals from China, South Korea and Japan to pick up during the second half of the year after the visa allowances are implemented. It is expected to have around 500,000 visitors to Mandalay this year.