YANGON, 4 October 2018: Myanmar has extended its visa-free offer to Hong Kong and Macau travellers according to a report from the Myanmar Tourism Federation released Wednesday.
Hong Kong and Macau passport holders join citizens from Japan and South Korea who were added to the list of nationalities eligible for a visa-free stay, effective 1 October.
According to the federation’s Myanmar Tourism Marketing team (MTM) including Hong Kong and Macau on the visa-free list was approved at the same time.
However, the two countries were not identified on any of the government websites linked to tourism including the Ministry of Labour Population and Immigration.
Government departments routinely fail to post important changes that impact on tourism on their websites and Facebook pages, preferring to leave that duty to local news channels.
Earlier news reports suggested residents of Hong Kong and Macau would be eligible for a visa-on-arrival that was introduced 1 October for Chinese nationals.
Chinese nationals from mainland China can apply for a visa-on-arrival at Yangon International Airport, Mandalay International Airport and Nay Pyi Taw International Airport. Valid for 30 days the VOA costs USD50.
MTM said it was good news for the country’s tourism industry that desperately needs to attract more travellers from Asia, to compensate for the decline in European travellers.
In 2017, Yangon airport recorded 1,139,166 arrivals of which 95,908 were from Japan, 63,612 from Korea and 143,037 from China.
When visa-free travel was introduced to ASEAN member countries (Singapore. Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam), the tourism industry in Myanmar witnessed an increase in visits from those nations.
