Foreigner fees to rise at Mandalay Hill

A submission has been issued to Mandalay Region government to increase entrance fees to Mandalay Hill for foreigners, said Mandalay Hill trustee board chair U Thein Tun. 

The matter had already been submitted to the government last month, the trustee board said, on October 9.

“Right now, since we did not receive any reply from the regional government, we cannot start collecting increased fees. It will be collected when the approval is granted. Present fee is still K1000,” the official said.

Regarding the inquiry to the Mandalay regional government, an official replied that due to more imminent business, the discussion on the topic had to be delayed. The increase of entrance fees to Mandalay Hill has not yet been discussed.

The proposal suggests raising fees from the current price (K1000) established in April 2015 to K3000 for foreign tourists.

“The current fee is extremely low. The new rate is also not that much. Foreign tourists will be able to afford it,” explained U Thein Tun.

The official further explains that the price hike aims at palliating the decrease in revenue from photography services, victim of smartphone pictures.

“The famous pagodas are visited by a lot of foreigners. In order to derive some revenue, we started collecting fees. Instead of asking money from tourists, we should ask the shops to sell items to them.

“Then we should collect money from the shops. Although it’s true that tourists are coming here because they have money, it does not mean that they want to pay for everything,” said U Soe Win, a tourist guide from Mandalay.

The number of tourists coming to the hill during travel season is 500 to 700 per day, while it was only about 200 at other times, the records revealed.

From the beginning of the year until August, more than 66,000 foreign visitors toured Mandalay Hill, generating over K66 million in taxes, according to official records.

CREDIT : THE MYANMAR TIMES 12 OCT 2017