Nearly 5 million people visited Myanmar in 2015, according to the latest statistics, which represent another year of inexorable growth in the tourism industry.
Whatever may need fixing with the power outages or the streets or the traffic, the tourists don’t seem to care.
But travel organizations think there is room for improvement.
To that end, the Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA), an industry group, has placed stickers on several buildings downtown that warn local residents not to do annoying things like litter, smoke in public, spit betel nut and cut in line.
The stickers use stick figures to illustrate the point. UMTA told us that it started the campaign in Yangon on February 7 and it will expand to Shan State next week, and after that, to Bagan and Mandalay.
Summary: stickers stickers, more stickers!
Thatoe Thuzar Aung, UMTA general secretary of UMTA, said the campaign is about “public awareness.”
“Now, the new government is coming, which can bring changes,” he said, referring to the National League for Democracy’s election victory in November. NLD chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi has stressed trash clean-up and keeping the streets tidy.
“So, our association is supporting the new government in terms of implementing changes.”
