Myanmar will hold a huge floriculture show in the country's famous northern city of Pyin Oo Lwin in the middle of this month to promote tourism, reports reaching Yangon said Monday.

Pyin Oo Lwin, lying 69 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay and at over 1,000 meters above sea-level, enjoys cool and pleasant weather all year round. The flower city is well known for its pine trees, eucalyptus and silver-oak abounding in town.

The six-day floriculture show, which will commence Dec. 15 and will be attached with a festival marking the diamond jubilee of the famous National Kandawgyi Garden (NKG) in Pyin Oo Lwin and the opening of the new National Landmarks Garden near the NKG, will showcase 500,000 domestic floral plants and orchids as well as some rare foreign plants, according to the organizer.

The show, jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Forestry and the Woodland Group of Companies which took over the development of the garden six year ago, is expected to attract 200,000 local and foreign visitors to the show in which replicas of famous Myanmar sights made from flower will also be on display.

The festive activities will also include performances by musicians, dancers, models and magicians, the sources said.

The flower festival will be the first of its kind in the Kandawgyi park's history since it was established in 1915 as a botanical garden.

The 60-hectare garden was expanded in different eras reaching 177 hectares in 2000 which comprises lake, natural forest, observation tower and rose, orchid and bamboo gardens.

Statistics show that about 400,000 people have visited the park annually since it was reopened in 2001.

Myanmar's tourism industry is signaling to boost in the current tour season which lasts from November to May.

A new record high of one million tourists arrivals in the tour season especially in this year-end through to the first quarter of next year.

A latest figures released by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism show that foreign independent travelers visiting Myanmar account for 64 percent, while package travelers 22 percent and the rest go to those taking one-day trip on business.

According to the statistics, tourist arrivals in Myanmar increased annually in the past five years registering at 660,206 in the fiscal year of 2005-06 which ended in March, up from 656, 000 in 2004-05, 590,000 in 2003-04 and about 470,000 in 2002-03 and 2001-02 respectively.

The fiscal year's tourist arrivals have hit a record high in the past five years, registering an earning through tourism during the year at over 150 million U.S. dollars, up from only 17 million dollars in the previous year.

The ministry figures also indicate that there are 596 hotels, motels and guest houses in Myanmar providing a total of over 18, 500 rooms. The number of travel agencies in operation stands over 500.

More figures reveal that contracted foreign investment in the sector of hotels and tourism has so far amounted to 1.06 billion dollars since Myanmar started to open to such investment in late 1988. Of the investment, that in hotel projects amounted to over 580 million dollars.

Source: Xinhua