Number of Visitors to Bagan Up 15% - Tourism Ministry

The number of tour-ists visiting Bagan increased 15 per-cent in 2016 compared to the previous year, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism has said.

A total of 290,000 peo-ple made their way to the ancient plane of pagodas last year, compared to 240,000 tourists in 2015, the ministry said.

Travellers have not been put off by a power-ful earthquake in August last year that damaged a number of the pagodas in the UNESCO World Her-itage bid site, the ministry added.

Bagan has become an increasingly big draw for travellers thanks to wide-spread attention from travel publications tout-ing its iconic sunset views, its fascinating heritage and the opportunity to ride hot air balloons over the temples.

But a new plan to pre-vent tourists from climb-ing temples to view sun-set and sunrise has drawn some criticism and raised fears that it would damp-en the appeal of Bagan for travellers.

The government wants to build a new view-ing platform for tourists before banning temple climbing altogether, ac-cording to Archaeology Department under theMinistry of Religion Af-fairs and Culture.

The Japan Internation-al Cooperation Agency (JICA) has submitted a proposal to the Archaeol-ogy Department for a new location for sunset and sunrise viewing. The plan is aimed at reducing the risk of damage and wear to the temples caused by increasing numbers of people.

The new platform will rise 15 feet above the Ko Mauk Lake, west of Pwar Soe village outside of the Bagan Ancient Zone. The archaeology department expects the platform to accommodate between 100 and 150 visitors along the lake’s bank.

Author: Phyo Thu | 03 Apr 2017

Credit : Myanmar Business Today