IMPROVED international cooperation is crucial to boost Myanmar’s tourism industry and the private sector’s role, industry sources say.

As countries across Southeast Asia open their borders and relax their visa policies, local tour operators and foreign officials are hoping Myanmar will follow suit and cash in on the trend.

“Every country in the region is expected to make an effort – not just for its own benefit, but to focus on region-wide development,” said U Maung Maung Swe, chairman of SM Tours and Transport Company in Yangon.

But to do so, international cooperation is crucial.

“Myanmar needs to get along with the international community to make its tourism industry vibrant amid regional tourism potential,” said another leading Yangon-based tour operator.

For instance, a regional highway between Vietnam and Myanmar’s deep-sea port at Mawlamyine is under construction. The highway is expected to bring a major boost to trade and tourism in the region.

But Myanmar’s section of the road, along with Vietnam’s, has yet to be completed.

Thailand and Cambodia plan to launch a single-visa program by the end of this year. Travellers will be allowed to enter both nations with the same visa, enhancing the tourist potential for both countries.

The rest of the region is waiting to see how the program works, U Maung Maung Swe said.

If it’s successful, he said, there is talk of extending the program to some or all of the Greater Mekong Subregion, which includes Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Yunnan province, which potentially would include all of China.

But it’s unclear whether Myanmar would go along with the more liberal visa regimes in neighbouring countries, said a retired senior official from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

Thailand is already pushing for a timeframe to launch a single-visa program for all ASEAN countries, he said.

While Thailand issues visas on arrival for many nationalities, most visitors to Myanmar must apply in advance, a process that can take up to two weeks.

“It becomes a critical problem for Asian travellers, who make travel plans right before their trip,” said U Maung Maung Swe, whose company mainly focus on Taiwanese and Japanese travellers.

He said Myanmar also is missing out by restricting overland travel from Thailand. Tourists have to fly into Myanmar to visit the star attractions.

“Most of them want to visit Inle Lake, Mandalay and Bagan through the Tachilek - Mae Sai entry,” he said. Currently foreigners cannot travel into Myanmar farther than Kengtung from that border crossing.

The Myawaddy - Mae Sot crossing in Kayin State also has high potential to draw visitors, he said. Currently foreigners are allowed into Myanmar for only one day there.

Opening the borders would allow travel agents to promote caravan tours, where groups of tourists take buses or SUVs from one country to another.

Agents say those tourists spend more during their stay than independent budget travellers.

“If caravan tours are allowed to operate in Myanmar, it could help a lot in terms of revenue,” said Daw Su Su Tin, managing director of Exotissimo Travels and Tours.

Exotissimo arranged caravan tours from China to India through Myanmar in 2003 and 2004, she said, and both went smoothly.

Such excursions are rare.

According to the statistics released by the directorate of Hotels and Tourism, 427,988 people entered the country overland in 2005 – 65 percent of total arrivals.

But only 4pc of those overland arrivals made it to central cities such as Yangon or Mandalay.

To boost cross-border tourism in the region, Daw Su Su Tin suggested opening the border between Myanmar and Laos, as well as improving roads and other infrastructure.