Parliament tours take off

NAY PYI TAW  About 200 tourists have visited Parliament in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, during the last three months after the premises were opened to pre-arranged tours in April.
Myanmar Business Today quoted the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism that claimed mainly European travellers visited Parliament and it would help boost travel to the capital city in the coming years.
The capital has around 8,000 hotel rooms of international standard, but occupancy is very low at around 20% to 30%.
Permission to visit the parliament started last April, but under strict conditions. Visitors must contact travel agencies that then seek permission from the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism for each visit.
inside no 3Travel agencies will need to complete the entire application process and have just five days to file their request ahead of the proposed visit.
“No entrance fee is collected right now. But we might collect entrance fees in the future,” the official said.
The opening of Parliament to visitors was part of a tourism marketing plan to improve attractions in the capital. An international airport was opened in 2014 and more than 60 hotels have been built over the last three years.
According to official statistics, about 100,000 tourists visited Nay Pyi Taw last year, the report added.
There are not many attractions other than a temple and its prized white elephants, but opening Parliament was a step in the right direction. Up until April, tour buses stopped at the gates for a photo opportunity.
It is understood that hosting the ASEAN Tourism Forum in the capital last January sparked off interest in developing tourist attractions. Top-level meetings were held on the sidelines of the event that presented a raft of suggestions on how to improve Nay Pyi Taw’s tourism appeal. The Parliament tour was one of the recommendations. Others included giving airlines financial incentives such as cheaper landing fees if they added a service to the capital.
On the transport side, Air KBZ started a new domestic route linking Nay Pyi Taw to Mandalay last April, but there are daily tour buses that ferry travellers between Mandalay and the political capital.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia