Visitors expected to throng Ngapali Beach during Thingyan

By DMG 07 Apr 2022

DMG Newsroom
7 April 2022, Thandwe

With the approach of Thingyan, the Myanmar New Year Festival, the number of people visiting Ngapali Beach in Thandwe Township, Arakan State, is on the rise, hoteliers said.

Most hotels and guesthouses in Ngapali are fully booked for Thingyan, said Ko Thant Zaw Oo, owner of Mya Padamyar Garden Hotel.

“All the hotels in Ngapali are fully booked. Most of the guesthouses are also fully booked during Thingyan, so this year there will definitely be more visitors than in previous years,” he told DMG.

Most of the visitors to Ngapali Beach are from Yangon, Mandalay and the Arakan State capital Sittwe, according to hoteliers.

This year’s Thingyan festivities on Ngapali Beach are expected to be crowded with visitors, said U Tun Thant Kyaw, an elder of Ngapali town.

“The Thingyan festival will be teeming with guests because there are a lot of visitors on the beach. It has been almost two years that we haven’t seen many visitors on Ngapali Beach. This season, hoteliers and vendors will also be comfortable with their business,” he added.

Hoteliers in Ngapali town say most hotels have struggled to stay viable during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now that the number of Covid-19 cases has dropped, hoteliers say they could attract more tourists to Arakan State if foreign airlines were allowed to operate more normally.