Myanmar goes from undersupply to oversupply of hotels

25 May 2018 2068 | World Travel News

Myanmar is currently grappling with hotel oversupply as a swathe of properties continue to open while tourist arrivals fall short of the country’s target.

Su Su Tin, managing director of Sanctum Inle Resort and Yangon Excelsior Hotel – slated to open in July – said the limited room supply during the sudden tourist boom between 2011-2013 triggered a surge in interest from investors looking to fill the gap.

Hotels are continuing to pop up even though tourists are not arriving fast enough; Yangon’s skyline pictured

The influx in investment was further fuelled by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism’s (MoHT) announcement in its 2013 tourism master plan to attract 7.5 million international visitors by 2020.

However, Yangon International Airport welcomed 5.9 million passengers in 2017, of which 66 per cent were international. While this represents an 8.5 per cent increase year-on-year, it is far from the predicted growth of arrivals.

Edwin Briels, managing director of Khiri Myanmar, said: “There will be an undersupply of tourists. For example, Bagan had 380,000 tourists last year; that’s nothing, we need to get more tourists to these destinations.”

Figures from MoHT reveal that as of March 2018, there were 1,628 hotels and guesthouses with 65,470 rooms across the country. More properties by major players are slated to open their doors this year.

Bertie Lawson, managing director of Sampan Travel, said: “Many of these hotels thought tourism was going to boom. When they, (the boom in tourism did not happen) and it’s causing a lot of stress for hoteliers.”