Until September this year, the number of licensed hotels and guest houses reached 1,704 nationwide, according to the figures from Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

The ministry issued licenses to 404 hotels with 21,147 rooms in Yangon, 219 hotels with 9,073 rooms in Mandalay, 145 hotels with 4,606 rooms in Taunggyi and Inle and 85 hotels with 3,019 rooms in Bagan and Nyaung-U.

Until September, the ministry issued 2,712 tour licenses--one foreign company, 41 joint-venture companies and 2670 citizen-owned companies. In addition, the ministry issued 2,552 transport licenses, 3,307 tour guide licenses and 3,811 regional tour guide licenses.

Yangon, Mandalay and Shan see the most tourist arrivals. Until August this year, the county saw tourist arrivals of more than two million, a two per-cent decline when compared with the same period last year. The country saw tourist arrivals of 4.6 million in 2015, 2.91 million in 2016 and 3.44 million in 2017.

According to the official lists released by Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, until mid-2017, there were 363 hotels with 18200 rooms and 426 hotels with 17784 rooms.

From March 2015 to September, 2018, the number of hotels and rooms has increased by 556 and 22,830.