Most of the facts presented in this article are extracted from the Yangon Lodging Supply and Demand study conducted in December 2014 by MMRD Business Insights, coupled with the latest data.

Since the waves of political and economic reforms that began in 2011, Myanmar has seen a surge in the number of visitors, albeit from a very low base.

35% CAGR of tourist in Myanmar since 2010

While the figure of 1 million of international visitors reached in 2014 should be taken with a pinch salt given the lack of robust methodology, other indicators such as the occupancy rate of hotels or the number of visitors at the Shwedagon Pagoda all clearly show a rapid growth, driven by the appetite of tourists and businessmen for the pristine beaches and the untapped pool of ~54 million consumers. The figures available for the first six months of 2015 show a continued rapid growth – our latest channel checks suggest the end of the year might be more difficult, though, as tourists might be holding off until the dust of the elections has settled.

The stock of hotel rooms in Yangon will increase by 40% within the next 5 years

Our research shows that by 2020, the number of hotel rooms in Yangon will reach 18,000+, up from 12,600 today, a 40%+ increase in just 5 years. While impressive, the total number of rooms is still far behind neighboring capitals such as Bangkok or Singapore. The growth so far has been mostly coming from low to mid-range hotels, with a 20% growth forecasted in those two segments combined in 2015.

70-80% occupancy in 2014

The construction of new hotels has been fast enough to match the surge in the number of visitors in Yangon and existing hotels have enjoyed high occupancy rates and strong ADR and RevPar compared to cities like Bangkok where competition is fierce among hoteliers. While RevPar in Yangon were around USD 120, it barely reached USD 80 in Bangkok. However, the sharp increase in the number of rooms, from ~10,000 in 2010 to ~12,000 expected by the end of 2015, should push hotels’ KPIs lower; again, our most recent channel checks confirm this trend.

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