Ministry to grant outbound tour licences for Bodhgaya

Ministry to grant outbound tour licences for Bodhgaya

By Yu Yu Maw   |   Monday, 28 January 2013

A Buddha image at Bodhgaya. Photo: Archive

Travel companies will soon be able to apply for licences to offer Bodhgaya packages after the Ministry of Religious Affairs agreed to relinquish control over tours to the pilgrimage site, Union of Myanmar Travel Association secretary U Naung Naung Han said last week.

The UMTA, with the support of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, submitted a request to the Ministry of Religious Affairs on December 18, asking that it issue outbound licences to private companies, he told a press conference on the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Yangon.

“Travel and tour companies have not had the chance to officially sell Bodhgaya outbound tours. Since 1988, the Ministry of Religious Affair handles the pilgrimage tours and they did not give official permits to travel agents,” he said.

It was not clear whether the decision had been made before the January 16 resignation of Minister for Religious Affairs Thura U Myint Maung, who had held the post since mid-2003. A number of sources said they did not believe the events were linked.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Religious Affairs told The Myanmar Times on January 18 that the ministry did not stop travel companies from offering Bodhgaya packages. He said it had allowed five companies to officially offer packages because they met the ministry’s customer service standards, but about 50 other companies offered packages unofficially.

“We replied to the request that we have no objection. Approval of outbound licences for Bodhgaya not only concerns our ministry; the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is the main actor because it is the only one who issues outbound licences. We have nothing to say [about the request] and do not stop anything,” the spokesperson said.

He said, however, that the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism should have issued a law covering outbound tour operators before it started to issue outbound licences. He said regulation was needed because pilgrims to Bodhgaya, in northeastern India, often complain about poor service from operators.

“We have five tour companies that are officially doing tour programs with our rules and regulations. We drew up those rules because they were sorely needed. We don’t want to prohibit the travel companies from offering Bodhgaya tour programs but we receive many complaints from travellers to Bodhgaya.”

Most complaints concern transportation, accommodation and food, he said. “We don’t want travellers to suffer these kinds of problems during their pilgrimage. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism should choose qualified tour companies when it issues licences to tour companies. We know that many companies offer good service but some are really bad.”

The issue highlights the lack of formal regulation of the sector, observers noted. While Myanmar has a tourism law, introduced in 1991, it makes no mention of outbound tourism. Anecdotal reports from travel companies suggest demand for tours, not only to Bodhgaya but also Southeast Asian destinations, such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, has grown significantly in recent years.

“We always just talk about tourist arrivals. But we never think about making any statistics for outbound tourism,” said U Naung Naung Han from the UMTA.

UMTA chairman Dr Aung Myat Kyaw told The Myanmar Times the decision to issue licences for Bodhgaya was “the first step for outbound tourism development”.

“We will cooperate with the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism for the development of outbound tours to Bodhgaya,” he said. “And we will continue working on our request to get outbound licences to offer packages to any destination.”

Ministry to grant outbound tour licences for Bodhgaya