Ngapali Beach sees October rise in visitors 

By DMG 27 Oct 2021

DMG newsroom
27 October 2021, Thandwe 

Arakan State’s preeminent beach destination, Ngapali in Thandwe Township, saw a marked uptick in visitors this month after a quiet September blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic and a tourism industry that, much like the rest of Myanmar’s economy, has reeled since the February 1 coup. 

“The number of travellers to the beach in October is three times higher than in September,” U Tin Tun Aung, director of the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism in Arakan State, told DMG. 

Only 756 domestic travellers and 23 foreigners arrived via Thandwe Airport in September. That compares with 2,893 domestic travellers and 94 foreigners through October 25. 

“We did not close the beaches amid the spike in Covid-19 infections in Arakan State. But we did not allow visitors from the areas where the lockdown was imposed. So, the arrival of visitors decreased,” U Tin Tun Aun said. 

“We have a plan to hold an opening ceremony to let people from in-country and abroad know that Ngapali Beach is open,” he added.

 Hoteliers and other subsectors of the tourism industry in southern Arakan State have been hard-hit by the twin crises of Covid-19 and fallout from the military’s coup in February. 

U Myo Thet, owner of Htay Htay restaurant and guesthouse, said visitors to the beach began to increase in early October. 

Out of 100 hotels, motels and guesthouses in Arakan State that had closed due to the pandemic, 57 were allowed to resume operations as of the end of September, according to the state’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism. 

The arrival of domestic and foreign travellers to Arakan State in 2020 was down 25% compared with 2019 due to regional instability and the Covid-19 pandemic, figures from the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism showed.