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Following the country's economic and political reforms, new data from the Myanmar Tourism Federation (MTF) shows that a million tourists visited Myanmar last year.

The nation's popularity as a tourist and business destination is owing to political and economic reform over the past few years, including the release of political prisoners such as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Prior to that, during most of last four decades, international visitors could only enjoy Myanmar's panoramic sights in the presence of government minders while getting a tourist visa was not easy.

Myanmar Travel Association Chairman Dr Aung Myat Kyaw explained "we never actually expected this increase because the numbers have been stagnant for so many years. So we never expected this jump."

However, with visitor numbers expected to increase by a further 30% in 2013, industry players warn that the country's under-developed infrastructure mean it isn't yet ready to receive a huge inflow of visitors.

Myanmar Marketing Committee Chairman Phyoe Wai Yar explained "we need more hotels - international standard hotels. We do have hotels run by Myanmar nationals. But we need to upgrade the skills of those running the hotels and we also need to expand the number of rooms."

The urgent need to develop tourism infrastructure has spurred the MTF to hold the Myanmar Development Cooperation Forum on 19th January,

Ideas generated from the Forum will be used to draw up the Government's tourism master plan.

The event was held at the Myanmar International Convention Centre.

For more information go to http://myanmartourismboard.org

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