The company headquartered in Vietnam has an office in Myanmar, which will organise the familiarisation trips designed to restore travel confidence despite the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis.

Arrivals to Myanmar declined after the crisis, which is now in its third year and has cut travel bookings, particularly from Europe.

Asian markets are performing well, but not at a level to compensate for losses from major markets in Europe that generate high spend visits with a longer length of stay.

ASIA DMC will start with fam trips from Australia and New Zealand hosted this September.

Fam Trip departures will be scheduled for the remainder of the low season this year through to the end of October and will resume in May at the start of the low-season in 2019.

The trips will focus on opening itineraries that feature new resorts that are opening at emerging beach resorts in the Mergui Archipelago, south Myanmar.

For example, agents will visit Wa Ale Eco Lodge that is due to open this October featuring 11 luxury tented beach villas and nine treetop villas on the pristine Wa Ale Island. In addition, the Memories Group is creating Awei Pila, a stunning 26-room luxury beachfront eco-resort, which is due to open this November.

According to Myanmar’s Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, as of March 2018, there were 1,628 hotels and guesthouses with 65,470 rooms across the country.

More properties are due to open their doors this year and existing hotels and resorts, such as the Belmond Governor’s Residence in Yangon, are now offering discounts for stays in the high season, November – March, to further encourage bookings.

“There has been an improvement in travel infrastructure and there is the opportunity to experience luxury travel products” said ASIA DMC’s Group managing director, Linh Le.

“ASIA DMC will continue to introduce guests to a diverse collection of sustainable and authentic experiences in Myanmar,” commented ASIA DMC Myanmar managing director Gerben Bloemendaal.

Source: TTR Weekly