Myanmar plans to extend visa-on-arrival scheme for Indian, Chinese tourists for one more year

The Myanmar government is planning to extend the visa-on-arrival scheme for Indian and Chinese tourists for one more year, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism has said.

On late Monday, the Ministry also divulged that it will extend visa exemption schemes for visitors from Japan and South Korea for another year, to September 30, 2020, to attract more tourists to the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

The visa exemption was initially allowed for visitors from Japan and South Korea and visa-on-arrival for those from China from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019.

But now visa-on-arrival granted for Indian tourists for one year from December 1, 2018, will also be extended to November 30, 2020, the Ministry said.

The Ministry, in an earlier release in July, had noted that Myanmar authorities planned to grant visa-on-arrival to visitors from six more countries starting from October 1 as further relaxation of visa restriction on foreign visitors in addition to those belonging to the Asian countries in a bid to boost tourism.

The prior relaxation of visa restriction on Asian travellers have significantly prompted the increase of tourist arrivals in Myanmar in the first six months of 2019 to 2.14 million, up by almost 420,000 people as compared with the same period of 2018 when 1.72 million entered the country, according to the figures from the ministry.

The country targets to attract over seven million visitors by 2020.