Room Rates Set At Hotels In Myanmar For 27th SEA Games In December
The 27th Southeast Asian Games or SEA Games are taking place in Myanmar for the first time in 40 years, at venues in Yangon, Mandalay, Ngwe Saung beach and the new capital Nay Pyi Taw. They will run from 11 to 22 December, with the opening ceremony taking place on the 11th and the closing ceremony on the 22nd, both in Nay Pyi Taw. The theme of the 2013 games is Green, Clean and Friendship.
The SEA Games is a biennial sporting event involving Southeast Asian countries. It is under regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation, with supervision by the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Council of Asia. The most recent edition of the SEA Games was in Indonesia in November 2011, while Singapore is next host nation in 2015 after the 2013 staging in Myanmar.
The Myanmar government was quoted as saying the rates for hotels in Myanmar for international invited guests, team administrators, referees, juries, media, observers and sports fans had been coordinated according to the location and room types.
The rate for media and observers was set at US$55 in Nay Pyi Taw and US$75 in Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwe Saung. Lists of participants for bookings must have been filed by 30 September.
For sports fans, the rate was set at US$70 in Nay Pyi Taw, US$150 in Yangon and US$100 in Mandalay and Ngwe Saung. The close-off date for these bookings is 31 October.
The Myanmar Hotelier Association, meanwhile, is checking the standard of hotels in Yangon ahead of the SEA Games. Yangon Hotel Zone chairman, Tin Win, confirmed inspections had begun in September. He said the association was not giving official ratings to hotels but rather just checking that upgrades and improvements had been carried out as promised.
According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, around 90 hotels in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw will offer over 7,000 rooms for the 27th SEA Games.
Wunna Theikdi Stadium in Nay Pyi Taw will stage the opening and closing ceremonies of the 27th SEA Games, and most of the major events will take place in Nay Pyi Taw. Venues for those events to take place in Yangon include Thuwana National Sports Complex, Aung San Stadium, Theinphyu Stadium and North Dagon Shooting Range. Ngwe Saung beach – about four hours' drive from Yangon – will co-host the water sports and sailing competitions. Bahtoo Stadium is the venue to be used in Mandalay.
Aung San Stadium was the main venue for the 1961 and 1969 South East Asian Peninsular Games or SEAP Games, which Myanmar hosted in those years. The name of the games was changed to the Southeast Asian Games in 1977, with countries like Indonesia and the Philippines joining the biennial competition.
Nowadays the SEA Games involves all 10 Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN member states, plus Timor Leste as the 11th competing nation.
Myanmar's staging of the 27th SEA Games comes as the country continues to open up further and is seeing record international visitor numbers. Arrivals in 2012 surpassed 1 million and the government – on the occasion of World Tourism Day on 27 September – announced it was expecting to see between 1.8 million and 2 million foreign tourists visit in 2013. The government's Tourism Master Plan envisages a possible 7.4 million visitors by 2020.
Along with increasing visitor arrival numbers, new flights have been added to Myanmar by several airlines this year – in the form of increased frequencies on existing routes and the launching of brand new routes – and new hotels in Myanmar are also being built.
The SEA Games is a biennial sporting event involving Southeast Asian countries. It is under regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation, with supervision by the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Council of Asia. The most recent edition of the SEA Games was in Indonesia in November 2011, while Singapore is next host nation in 2015 after the 2013 staging in Myanmar.
The Myanmar government was quoted as saying the rates for hotels in Myanmar for international invited guests, team administrators, referees, juries, media, observers and sports fans had been coordinated according to the location and room types.
The rate for media and observers was set at US$55 in Nay Pyi Taw and US$75 in Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwe Saung. Lists of participants for bookings must have been filed by 30 September.
For sports fans, the rate was set at US$70 in Nay Pyi Taw, US$150 in Yangon and US$100 in Mandalay and Ngwe Saung. The close-off date for these bookings is 31 October.
The Myanmar Hotelier Association, meanwhile, is checking the standard of hotels in Yangon ahead of the SEA Games. Yangon Hotel Zone chairman, Tin Win, confirmed inspections had begun in September. He said the association was not giving official ratings to hotels but rather just checking that upgrades and improvements had been carried out as promised.
According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, around 90 hotels in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw will offer over 7,000 rooms for the 27th SEA Games.
Wunna Theikdi Stadium in Nay Pyi Taw will stage the opening and closing ceremonies of the 27th SEA Games, and most of the major events will take place in Nay Pyi Taw. Venues for those events to take place in Yangon include Thuwana National Sports Complex, Aung San Stadium, Theinphyu Stadium and North Dagon Shooting Range. Ngwe Saung beach – about four hours' drive from Yangon – will co-host the water sports and sailing competitions. Bahtoo Stadium is the venue to be used in Mandalay.
Aung San Stadium was the main venue for the 1961 and 1969 South East Asian Peninsular Games or SEAP Games, which Myanmar hosted in those years. The name of the games was changed to the Southeast Asian Games in 1977, with countries like Indonesia and the Philippines joining the biennial competition.
Nowadays the SEA Games involves all 10 Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN member states, plus Timor Leste as the 11th competing nation.
Myanmar's staging of the 27th SEA Games comes as the country continues to open up further and is seeing record international visitor numbers. Arrivals in 2012 surpassed 1 million and the government – on the occasion of World Tourism Day on 27 September – announced it was expecting to see between 1.8 million and 2 million foreign tourists visit in 2013. The government's Tourism Master Plan envisages a possible 7.4 million visitors by 2020.
Along with increasing visitor arrival numbers, new flights have been added to Myanmar by several airlines this year – in the form of increased frequencies on existing routes and the launching of brand new routes – and new hotels in Myanmar are also being built.
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