Luxury Accommodation on the Rise in Myanmar

As the number of tourists and business people travelling to Myanmar increases year on year, it is becoming very apparent that there are just not enough beds for everyone. The numbers of annual visitors has grown from around 1 million in 2012 to an anticipated 3 million in 2015. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism (MOHT) is forecasting that in 2020 they will be ready and prepared to welcome 8 million visitors, and are developing the marketing strategy and infrastructure improvement to reach this target and meet the needs of the visitors when they arrive.

With only 298 hotels and 13,990 rooms currently available in Yangon, there is going to have to be a massive amount of investment and construction to be able to accommodate the numbers of people coming to visit. The MOHT has developed the ‘2013-2020 Myanmar Tourism Master Plan’ in collaboration with the big tour and hotel operators along with investment and construction companies to deal with the influx at a high standard.

Along with the building of new hotels in Yangon and throughout the country, there have been several other improvements to the system. Visa applications are being streamlined – you can now apply for an electronic visa online. The domestic and international airports are being upgraded, and new air services agreements are being implemented. The 2013-2020 Myanmar Tourism Master Plan is in full flow and if all goes as advertised then Myanmar will be ready. The large number of building sites around the city are demonstration enough that Yangon is changing fast and rushing to catch up with the rest of Asia in regards to accommodation, office space, hotels and quality.

The first new face in the city, breathing fresh air into a stale market, is Novotel Yangon Max. Located halfway between the airport and downtown, this mid-scale hotel is advertised as having 336 guestrooms, including executive rooms and suites and will fill a much-needed gap in the market. It is ACCOR’s 3rd property in Myanmar, and remarkably the first international hotel to be built in the city in over 20 years.

Close on their heels is the new US$80 million extension being constructed at the Sedona Hotel called the ‘Inya Wing’.  The Sedona Hotel Yangon opened in 1996, and was one of the first international hotels established in Myanmar. Now they are going to be one of the biggest as the new development by Singaporean developer Keppel Land will bring the capacity of the hotel to 786 rooms, and the new 29 storey wing will be one of the tallest buildings in the city. This is expected to be open by the end of 2015 and is marketed at business and foreign investment customers as well as high-end tourists.

Next door to the Sedona, the 5-star Melia Hotel is being built on the Vietnamese owned Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Myanmar Center site. The 23-story Spanish owned hotel will be the 4th tower on the mixed-use US$440 million development and it is advertised that it will be open and fully functioning by the end of the year.

International hotels chains like Kempinski, Hilton, Wyndham, Pan Pacific, and others are already operating in Myanmar and many others are developing partnerships and strategies to establish themselves in this growing tourist market. It seem that not only will there be enough beds to go around by 2020, the quality of the accommodation offerings will only continue to improve.