by Reinhold Hohler, Phnom Penh

Myanmar may be a country that attracts international condemnation for its oppressive military regime but that does not appear to have stemmed the flow of visitors to the country. Tourism officials say that a figure of 800,000 visitors in 2010 was four percent up on 2009 arrival numbers. Arrivals from Australia and New Zealand were up almost three percent last year.Myanmar is looking to boost its hotel stock in anticipation of strong growth in international visitor arrivals following the recent government
elections. U Htay Aung, director general of the Myanmar Hotels and Tourism Directorate, speaking at Asean Tourism Forum, said a visa-on-arrival policy, which had stalled during the elections, would be revived. “We’ll do it step-by-step, starting with Asean countries, but we would like to extend visa-on-arrival to all countries,” he said.