Ngapali Beach expected to receive fewer visitors for Thadingyut holiday

By Admin 19 Oct 2023

DMG Newsroom
19 October 2023, Thandwe
 
Hoteliers at Myanmar’s most popular beach town, Ngapali in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township, expect a decline in the number of visitors coming for the Thadingyut holiday compared with last year’s arrivals.
 
Thousands of holidaymakers visited Ngapali during Thadingyut in 2022. 

“Hotels and guesthouses in Ngapali were fully booked at this time last year. Only some hotels have been booked up this year. We can say the number of visitors has declined by half from the previous year.”
 

Expensive airfares and tight checks along the roads to Ngapali are discouraging people from visiting the beach, with holidaymakers instead choosing Chaungtha and Ngwe Hsaung beaches in Ayeyarwady Region, according to hoteliers in Ngapali.
 
HR manager U Win Than Oo of the Amata Resort Ngapali in Ngapali Beach said: “Some 75 percent of rooms have been booked in some hotels. We received a lot more visitors during Thingyan.”
 
Ngapali resident U Soe Soe said: “Some visitors have arrived in Ngapali. But not many. Two or three aeroplanes have landed in Ngapali. The number of visitors is smaller compared with last year. Locals here are dependent on visitors for their livelihoods.”
 

The beach received more than 30,000 visitors during the Thingyan Buddhist New Year in April, according to the Arakan State Directorate of Hotels and Tourism.
 
The domestic tourism industry has largely collapsed since the 2021 coup, with some European countries warning their citizens not to make unnecessary travel to Myanmar.