Myanmar to turn railway office into hotel

Myanmar plans to turn its railway head office in Yangon to a five-star hotel, in a bid to develop the tourism industry, officials said.

The five-star hotel will have 154 suites with 450 staff to run the services, Xinhua reported Wednesday.

The hotel will accommodate 350 visitors.

According to statistics from the ministry of hotels and tourism, there are 859 hotels comprising 31,321 suites in Myanmar, of which 217 hotels are in Yangon with 9,451 suites. Of them, five hotels are rated as five-stars.

In 2012, the number of tourists in Myanmar reached 1.02 million, an increase of 200,000 compared to 820,000 in 2011.

Myanmar is targeting two million tourists in 2013 and up to three million in 2014.

Many foreign tourists would visit Myanmar to attend the 27th Southeast Asian Games at the end of this year and next year's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.