Burma threatens to kick out foreign hoteliers who won't drop room rates
Skift Take
Burma's tourism has skyrocketed in the past year, and is now at a crossroads between hotel growth for mass tourism, or keeping rooms limited to maintain a more authentic travel experience.
The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism recently ordered all foreign-owned hotels to cap their basic room rate at US$150 a night, in response to fears that demand-driven price rises were damaging the country’s reputation among overseas travellers.
The policy has been criticised by hoteliers, some of which have refused to bow to the ministry’s demands. The Sedona Hotel Yangon, for example, continued to charge guests up to $220 a night, prompting the ministry to take action. In a letter to the hotel’s Singaporean owners seen by Telegraph Travel, the ministry said that if the general manager, Saman Sarathchandra, did not comply, he would not be allowed to enter the country for six months.
“In this period, you are kindly requested to replace [sic] someone who can manage the hotel in the place of Mr Saman
