Myanmar plans to restart its domestic tourism in the third quarter of 2020, as a first phase of the country’s tourism recovery under the COVID-19 Tourism Relief Plan.
Traditional dancers wait to perform at the Rakhine State Investment Fair at Ngapali beach in Thandwe, Rakhine, Myanmar - Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Myanmar plans to restart its domestic tourism in thethird quarter of 2020, as a first phase of the country’s tourism recovery underthe COVID-19 Tourism Relief Plan.
Under the plan recently launched by the Ministry of Hotelsand Tourism, domestic tourism will resume soon to help 20 to 25 percent of thetourism sector recover.
The ministry and the Religious Affairs and Culture Ministryare in talks to reopen the pagodas and cultural sites so as to restart domestictourism.
Meanwhile, regional tourism will resume in the fourthquarter of this year, by creating travel bubbles with neighboring countriessuch as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.
The ministry is expecting Asian tourism with countries likeChina and Japan in early 2021, looking at 50 to 60 percent recovery of theindustry while international tourism is expected to come back in early 2022with 80 to 90 percent recovery.
The relief plan consists of three main strategies which aresurvival - self-finance and stimulus package, reopening - relaxation oflockdown and quarantine and re-launching - reinventing Myanmar tourism andrelaxing of regulation accordingly with respective timelines.
Under the plan, the ministry has taken measures such aswaiving one-year license fees, deferring lease fees charged to affectedstate-owned hotels for six months, organising online training, daily allowancepaid training and COVID-19 Relief Package training, and running DigitalMarketing Campaign, Branding Strategy and E-commerce websites.
As Myanmar is seeing fewer numbers of local transmissions, atotal of 1,074 hotels, or 50 percent of total numbers of hotels across thecountry, have reopened after getting health and safety inspection passes as of June19.
As of June 20 morning, the country had reported 286confirmed cases with six deaths./.
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Traditional dancers wait to perform at the Rakhine State Investment Fair at Ngapali beach in Thandwe, Rakhine, Myanmar - Illustrative image (Source: VNA) 
