Chinese tourists second largest last year

Recording half a million Chinese visitors last year, Myanmar is hoping to make China one of its main tourism partners, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism said.

Minister U Ohn Maung said visitors from China made up the second largest number of foreign tourists in Myanmar.

“The total number of Chinese visitors last year was 498,656.

“We hope that China can be one of our main partners in the tourism industry, just like Thailand, Japan and South Korea,” he said on March 1 at the inaugural China-Myanmar tourism cooperation forum at the Myanmar International Convention Centre 2 in Nay Pyi Taw.

Chinese visitors can enter Myanmar at six border checkpoints, with Muse being the most commonly used point of entry.

In 2015, out of the total 822,878 Chinese tourists, who visited Myanmar, 674,901 entered via the border checkpoints.

U Ohn Maung said Myanmar and China had been collaborating in strategic efforts to bolster bilateral ties and promote cross-border tourism in those areas since they signed a tourism pact  in 2000. The World Tourism Organization, projects the Asia-Pacific region to woo  540 million tourists by 2030, making up 30 percent of the world tourism market.