Hotel prices have skyrocked during the past two years! A hotel room in an average three star hotel has in some cases tripled during this period, without being justified by improvements in structures and services offered, only pushed by the sudden rise in demand since the recent opening of the country to the West. In other words: While you are still blown out of your bed by the same overaged air-conditioner at night, your travel buget shrinks at the speeed of light during the day. Of course, by now you don’t even dare any more to question this inflationary trend, because you have been among the lucky ones who have found an empty hotel room in Yangon, a city today besieged by low-buget tourist groups and would-like to be businessmen. As much as the recent tourist boom has been and remains to be an excellent news an otherwise ailing hotel industry, it has become a big huzzle especially for the individual traveller.
With great satisfaction therefore we read what has been published in the february 25 edition of the local Myanmar Times (“Long -term strategy needed for hotels”) where it rightly says: ” It is important to recognise that first-time visitors to Myanmar are probably not first-time travellers in Asia. They have been to other countries in the region and rate the satisfaction level of their hotels in Myanmar against what they have experienced elsewhere in Asia. Their expectations ,therefore, of their Myanmar travel experience are high and not necessarily likely to be met.”
Some may argue that such comparison is the wrong approach to this certainly unique Asian country. Nevertheless, it might be wise from the ones responsible for tourism development in Myanmar to take into consideration the concerns voiced in the same article, namely that it is reality “that negative publicity about disappointing travel experiences travels faster and reaches more people than the positive stories.”
The best way forward is certainly to guarantee a condusive environment for investors in the hotel sector, increasing the number of rooms as well as services quality. A further solution to the problem could be to establish a transparent rating system for hotels based on international understanding, which would help a performance-based adjustment of room rates
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