Rail track heads for hotel

YANGON, 24 September 2013: Myanmar hopes to turn its railway head office in Yangon into an international five-star hotel to meet the growing demand for accommodation in the commercial capital.

According to a Xinhua online report, last week, the five-star hotel will have 154 suites and employ around 450 staff.

Very few details of the project are available but it is assumed Chinese investors will be involved.

Land prices in Yangon have skyrocketed in the last year making it difficult to achieve an acceptable return on investment in the hotel segment. Some investors have turned to lease options on old buildings but that requires extensive remakes of properties and conversions from commercial or government use to that of a hotel or mixed-use buildings.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, there are 859 hotels offering 31,321 rooms in Myanmar, of which 217 hotels are in Yangon with 9,451 rooms. Only five hotels are rated as five-star and are operated by foreign investors.

In the past, hotels have been accused of overcharging and delivering poor service and this has prompted the government to establish hotel zones to encourage international investment in new properties.

New hotel projects are also lined up in Yangon, Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw, Bagan and Ngapali. Big hotel chains such as Accor, Marriott, Hilton, Best Western and HAGL are negotiating entry offering hotel brands unseen in the country over the last 40 years.

The government projects 7.5 million tourists by 2020. According a tourism ministry report, last year’s arrivals passed 1 million for the first time and tourism revenue reached US$700 million.

Sourced: etravelblockboardasia