According to a Xinhua online report, last week, the
five-star hotel will have 154 suites and employ around 450 staff.
Very few details of the project are available but
it is assumed Chinese investors will be involved.
Land prices in Yangon have
skyrocketed in the last year making it difficult to achieve an acceptable
return on investment in the hotel segment. Some investors have turned to lease
options on old buildings but that requires extensive remakes of properties and
conversions from commercial or government use to that of a hotel or mixed-use
buildings.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Hotels
and Tourism, there are 859 hotels offering 31,321 rooms in Myanmar , of which 217 hotels are in Yangon with 9,451 rooms. Only five hotels are rated as five-star
and are operated by foreign investors.
In the past, hotels have been accused of
overcharging and delivering poor service and this has prompted the government
to establish hotel zones to encourage international investment in new
properties.
New hotel projects are also lined up in Yangon, Mandalay
post by: Kaythi