Traditional dancers wait to perform at the Rakhine State Investment Fair at Ngapali beach in Thandwe, Rakhine, Myanmar (Illustrative image - Source: VNA) In the first phase of reopening tourism, the ministry expects to welcome visitors from regional countries, the Xinhua News Agency reported. In this connection, the ministry needs to make alignment with their reopening plans, travel bubbles or travel corridor schemes.
Myanmar suspended operations of international commercial passenger flights excluding relief flights, medical evacuation and special flights, and the issuance of all types of visas for foreign nationals from all countries were also suspended, following the report of first two COVID-19 positive cases on March 23 last year.
According to a recent release of its Information Ministry, the nation’s land border crossings with Thailand will reopen next month ahead of a resumption of international air travel by the end of first quarter of 2022.
Minister of Information Maung Maung Ohn said in the release that international air travel is expected to resume in the first quarter of 2022 once the country’s vaccination program reaches targets and if global infection rates drop.
According to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Health, over 10.4 million people have been fully vaccinated while over 4.91 million people have received the first jabs of COVID-19 vaccines as of November 20.
The Hotels and Tourism Ministry launched the COVID-19 Tourism Relief Plan last year to put the tourism sector back on track. It launched the health and safety protocol for the tourism-related businesses to render services to visitors in August this year.
Myanmar received about 100,000 visitors up to September this year, down by 88 percent on-year due to travel curbs over COVID-19 in the country./.
VNA
