Hanoi (VNA) - Myanmar Vice President U HenryVan Thio on December 22 called for making sustainable tourism development plans,stressing the need to create new tourist routes and attractions, and abundantnatural resources to provide more choices for tourists.

Van Thio, who is also Chairman of the Central Committee forthe Development of the Natural Tourism Industry, said despite numerous natural landscapes,the number of visitors to Myanmar remains below expectation, the Myanmar NewsAgency reported.

While promoting Myanmar to the world as a place of interest,he emphasised the need to provide convenient and safe services to visitors,including the availability of visa-on-arrival, direct flights frominternational countries and visa-free entry to nationals of targeted countries.

President of Myanmar Tourism Federation U Yan Win suggestedthat the government supply funds for tourism development, open border entrancesand give visa exemption to visitors from member countries of the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as from China, Japan and the Republicof Korea.

Statistics showed that more than 2.9 million foreigntourists visited Myanmar in 2016 and as of the end of October 2017, the figure was3.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent .-VNA