Burma recorded a total of 903,000 tourists in 2020, ranking 102nd in the world in absolute terms.
Without including the size of a country, such a ranking list may not be very meaningful. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Burma, the result is much more comparable picture: With 0.017 tourists per resident, Burma ranked 176th in the world. In Southeast Asia, it ranked 9th.
Burma generated around 2.50 billion US Dollar in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 3.1 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 2 percent of all international tourism receipts in Southeast Asia.
On average, each of the tourists arriving in 2019 spent about 485 US Dollars.
Development of the tourism sector in Burma from 1995 to 2020
The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Burma each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g. crew members of ships or flights are also not considered as tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.
Data in the chart are given in millions of tourists. The red line represents the average of all 11 countries in Southeast Asia.
Revenues in tourism
In 1995, tourism revenues amounted to 169.00 million USD, or about 3.5 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 194,000 tourists at that time and roughly 871 USD per person. Within 24 years, the country's dependence on tourism has increased slightly. In the last year of the survey, the revenue now amounts to 2.50 billion USD, accounting for 3.6 percent of the gross national product. Each visitor now spends an average of 573 USD for his holiday in Burma.
All data for Burma in detail
Year
Number of tourists
Receipts
% of GNP
Receipts per tourist
2020
903,000
2019
4.36 m
2.50 bn $
3.6 %
573 $
2018
3.55 m
1.67 bn $
2.5 %
470 $
2017
3.44 m
1.99 bn $
3.2 %
577 $
2016
2.91 m
2.29 bn $
3.8 %
787 $
2015
4.68 m
2.20 bn $
3.5 %
470 $
2014
3.08 m
1.69 bn $
2.7 %
548 $
2013
2.04 m
964.00 m $
1.6 %
472 $
2012
1.06 m
550.00 m $
0.94 %
519 $
2011
816,000
334.00 m $
0.62 %
409 $
2010
792,000
91.00 m $
0.24 %
115 $
2009
763,000
75.00 m $
0.25 %
98 $
2008
731,000
80.00 m $
0.35 %
109 $
2007
716,000
97.00 m $
0.62 %
135 $
2006
630,000
59.00 m $
0.50 %
94 $
2005
660,000
83.00 m $
0.78 %
126 $
2004
657,000
97.00 m $
1.0 %
148 $
2003
597,000
70.00 m $
0.90 %
117 $
2002
487,000
136.00 m $
2.2 %
279 $
2001
475,000
132.00 m $
2.1 %
278 $
2000
416,000
195.00 m $
2.8 %
469 $
1999
435,000
222.00 m $
3.9 %
510 $
1998
478,000
196.00 m $
4.2 %
410 $
1997
491,000
183.00 m $
3.2 %
373 $
1996
490,000
215.00 m $
3.7 %
439 $
1995
194,000
169.00 m $
3.5 %
871 $
Our data on tourist numbers, revenues and expenditures are based on information from the World Tourism Organization. However, to ensure international comparability, the data for some years or countries were manually researched and corrected if they obviously included visitors without overnight stays. In these cases, the data were taken from the official communications of the respective national tourism authorities.
The WTO additionally points out that in some countries the number of tourists is only counted at airports, in others also at border crossings or even hotels. A comprehensive and reliable indication is therefore hardly possible in any country.