Tour operators in Myanmar say few Thai travellers appear willing to visit Myanmar by land despite the opening of the Myanmar-Thailand border bridges due to security concerns. 

A spokesperson for the Myanmar Hospitality and Tourism Association said that once the situation in Myanmar returned to normal and stable, then Thai visitors might return.  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many Thai travellers who visited Myanmar through border entry ports but currently they only enter Myanmar by air. 

The Thai Tourism Association said that Thai travellers had an interest in visiting Myanmar and the number of Thai travellers visiting Myanmar would increase when the security situation was good for them. 

Those who are helping Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand said that there were no travellers entering Myanmar en masse because of security concerns and even the Myanmar migrant workers on MOU were planning to go to Thailand by air.  

The Mae Sot-Myawaddy Friendship Bridge, which was closed for nearly three years after COVID-19 outbreak and volatile situation on the border, was reopened on 12 January and similarly the Mae Sai-Tachileik Bridge was reopened on 20 February. 

The officials from Myanmar Hospitality and Tourism Association said that in the current tourism sector in Myanmar, the number of foreign travellers was almost nil and the tourism industry has to rely on domestic travellers. 

Myanmar's tourism industry could not expect a rapid recovery to a pre-COVID level like other countries and in the current situation it is still struggling for survival, hoteliers and tourism operators say.  

After Myanmar’s reopening of commercial flight operations to and from Myanmar the travellers entering Myanmar are mostly from Thailand and China and the tour operators predict that the number of domestic travellers would greatly increase during the forthcoming Thingyan water festival holidays in April.