(MORE FOREIGN TOURISTS COME TO MYAN

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

(MORE FOREIGN TOURISTS COME TO MYANMAR)

 YANGON (Oct. 12) XINHUA - Foreign tourists visiting Myanmar
reached 567,458 in number in 1997-98 fiscal year which ended in March,
earning 30 million U.S. dollars of foreign exchange, according to
official statistics.

The number of visitors and the amount of foreign exchange rose by 18
and 2 times respectively compared with those before 1988.

 Of the tourists who visited Myanmar, more than 300,000 entered through
border points with the majority coming from China and Thailand.

 Previously, the capital Yangon was the only gateway for tourists to
enter Myanmar.

 To speed up the development of the country's tourism, Myanmar has
opened six border points with China and four similar points with
Thailand.

Up to now, there are 523 hotels with 14,714 rooms in Myanmar, whereas
there were only 39 hotels with 1,240 rooms before the country opened
its  door to the outside world in late 1988.

Foreign investment in the country's hotels and tourism sector had
reached 1.1 billion dollars by June this year.