YANGON (XINHUA, AFP) - Myanmar will resume accepting tourist e-visa applications starting on Sunday (May 15), more than two years after the country suspended all new e-visa applications due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Our Online e-Visa service will resume with effect from May 15, 2022, for tourist visa applications," the Immigration and Population Ministry said on Thursday.
The move came after the country's resumption of international commercial flight operations on April 17 and the reopening of its borders to international travellers.
The official data released by the Ministry of Health also showed the country's Covid-19 daily positivity rate has been below one per cent for more than a month since April 4.
The South-east Asian country resumed accepting applications for business e-visas on April 1.
Myanmar launched the online visa application platform in September 2014 and is accepting e-visa applications from this website.
Activist groups warn that the military’s vested interests in swathes of the economy – including mines, banks, petroleum, agriculture and tourism – mean tourist dollars will likely end up in the junta’s coffers.
“Even if foreign visitors avoid hotels and transport owned by the Myanmar military and their associates, they will still fund the junta through visa fees, insurance and tax,” said activist group Justice for Myanmar.
“We call on anyone considering a holiday in Myanmar to boycott.”
After democracy was established in 2011 following decades of military rule, Myanmar opened up to tourists, becoming popular with travellers seeking an exotic destination away from the well-trodden backpacker haunts of Southeast Asia.
But the tourism sector was battered by the pandemic, with the country registering 40,000 daily Covid-19 cases at its peak last year. It has recorded almost 20,000 deaths in total.
Clashes between anti-coup fighters and security forces following the military takeover, including in the main cities of Yangon and Mandalay, have also dented business, with many international firms pulling out of the nation.
The economy has slumped, with the local kyat currency plunging against the dollar and rolling power outages in major cities aggravating economic misery.
Access to ATMs and foreign exchange counters is patchy even in commercial hub Yangon.
Commercial flights for business travellers resumed in April, with visitors required to take a Covid-19 test on arrival but no longer required to quarantine.
More than 1,800 people have been killed by security forces and over 13,000 arrested since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
