Myanmar’s Shwedagon Pagoda attracts over 40,000 foreign visitors last month

Shwedagon Pagoda, usually crowded with visitors from home and abroad during the open season, is featured by its best repository in Myanmar heritage, architecture, sculpture and arts. (Photo: Justin Vidamo/ Flickr)

YANGON–Over 40,000 foreign tourists visited Myanmar’s world famous Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon in April, the first month of the 2017-18 fiscal year, according to the Pagoda’s Board of Trustee on Sunday.

Thailand topped the list with 7,749 visitors, followed by China with 2,295, Germany with 1,788, France with 1,626 and Japan with 1,453. In April of the FY 2016-17, the ancient pagoda attracted over 31,000 foreign visitors.

The board’s figures also show that more than 500,000 tourists from over 40 countries and regions visited the Shwedagon Pagoda annually.

Shwedagon Pagoda, usually crowded with visitors from home and abroad during the open season, is featured by its best repository in Myanmar heritage, architecture, sculpture and arts.

It accommodates hundreds of colorful temples, stupas, and statues that reflect the architectural era spanning almost 2,500 years.

In accordance with the statistics of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, tourist arrivals in Myanmar reached over 2.9 million in 2016. The country expects to receive over 7 million visitors by 2020.