Myanmar focuses on airport construction in tourism development efforts

Myanmar is focusing on airport construction and upgradation in its effort to develop the tourism industry encouraged by rapid growth in tourist arrivals.

According to statistics, tourist arrivals reached 4.4 million in 2014, up from 1.06 million in 2012 and 790,000 in 2010.

Myanmar expects to receive 5 million tourists in 2015 and more than 6 million in 2017.

In order to meet the demand for accommodating increasing tourists and to improve the country's aviation infrastructure, Myanmar has been building its largest modernized international airport in Hanthawaddy, in Bago region, about 77 kilometers northeast of Yangon.

The 1.5-billion-U.S. dollar Hanthawaddy airport covers an area of 3,645 hectares of land where the Japanese invaders built an airport during World War II.

The airport is planned to go into operation in 2022, with a capacity of handling 12 million passengers a year.

Meanwhile, upgrading of Myanmar's three international airports, in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw, respectively, is underway, and the government is privatizing the management business of all the 30 domestic airports in the country.