NEWS - Myanmar to Hold Special Fest

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar to Hold Special Festivals for New Millennium

Myanmar to Hold Special Festivals for New Millennium

               Xinhua
               26-JUN-99

               YANGON (June 27) XINHUA - The New Light of Myanmar
               newspaper Sunday urged the country's tourist sector to
               make preparations for the arrival of more tourists in
Myanmar
               in the new year period of 2000. 

               The country's three special zones -- Bagan and Mandalay
               cultural zones in Mandalay division and Inlay natural
zone in
               Shan state -- are recommended to hold special festivals
for
               tourists as these are the places, to which 20 to 50
percent of
               the foreign tourists visiting Myanmar, used to go. 

               Meanwhile, a major foreign-invested hotel in the capital
of
               Yangon has planned to make a program to hold fireworks
               display from Christmas Day in 1999 to the New Year Day to
               mark the ushering of the year 2000. 

               The paper urged entrepreneurs engaged in tourism to grasp
               the opportunities to develop the tourism industry and
               tourism-related businesses in the country. 

               According to official statistics, a total of 340,123
foreign
               tourists visited Myanmar in 1998. Myanmar is trying to
boost
               the number of tourist arrivals to 500,000 in the fiscal
year
               1999-2000. 

               At the end of March of this year, there were 21
               foreign-invested hotels and 439 local-run motels, hotels
and
               inns in the country, the statistics added. 

               Another official statistics show that as of the end of
April this
               year, foreign investment in 29 hotels and tourism
projects in
               Myanmar amounted to 1.1 billion U.S. dollars.