YANGON, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- About 70 percent of workers in Myanmar's tourism and hospitality sectors suffered redundancy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, head of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA) Naung Naung Han said on Friday.
"The pandemic halted tourism and hospitality industry, causing decline in tourism-related earnings from businesses including hotels, restaurants, transportation and others," he said.
About 560,000 out of over 800,000 workers in the tourism-related businesses went unemployed amid the pandemic according to the forecasts by the relevant local and international organizations, he told Xinhua.
Myanmar temporarily suspended entry restrictions for all visitors and suspended operating international commercial flights to curb the spread of the virus through air travel since March 31 last year, days after the first two COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed in the country.
It resumed domestic flights in line with standard operating procedures and health and safety guidelines issued by the health ministry to ease the restrictions for recovery starting Dec. 16 last year.
To boost the domestic tourism industry, the first non-landing sightseeing flight tour was launched by the state-owned Myanmar National Airlines on Dec. 20. Enditem
