“Nay Pyi Taw is like a dead city,” said U Aye Kyaw, managing director of Ruby Land Tourism Services.
It takes more than a few conference halls to lure foreign visitors to a MICE destination, he said.
“There need to be facilities with shopping spots and restaurants too,” he said. “And we can’t compete with Thailand and Vietnam on hotel room prices.”
Daw Zar Chi Thet, operations manager at Ayarwaddy Legend Travels and Tours, welcomed the government’s initiatives, but said there was still much to do in the capital before foreign visitors saw it as aninternational conference destination.
“Lower room prices are one of just many factors needed to help promote a MICE industry,” she said. “There should be more cheap direct flights to Nay Pyi Taw, for example.”
Additional entertainment facilities were also important to the industry, Daw Zar Chi Thet added.
“Tourists have told us that there is no place to go when the events are finished,” she said. “It is not enough to have only lower hotel room prices, but we need better transportation and other facilitiesto promote a tourism industry in Nay Pyi Taw.