Hotel Okura Co. is expanding into Myanmar. When it opens in 2020, the Okura Prestige Yangon will be the first Okura Hotels & Resorts member hotel to operate in the country.
For the operation and management of The Okura Prestige Yangon, Hotel Okura expects to sign a contract in August with a local alliance comprising Fujita Corporation, Tokyo Tatemono, Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development and Yangon Technical & Trading, a subsidiary of Ayeyar Hinthar Holdings.
The Okura Prestige Yangon is expected to have approximately 390 guestrooms in downtown Yangon, a short walk from Yangon Central Railway Station and a short drive from the historic Shwedagon Pagoda. It will be situated within a large commercial complex, including office buildings and retail facilities, to be constructed on the site of the former Defense Services Museum.
“It is a true honor for Hotel Okura to take part in this large development project, the first investment permit under the new Myanmar Investment Law, thanks to a coordinated effort by Japan’s public and private sectors, as well as the local partner,” Toshihiro Ogita, president of Hotel Okura Co. said in a statement, noting that the company was aiming to add three to five more hotels in Myanmar over the next five years, including The Okura Prestige Yangon.
Myanmar, since shifting toward civilian democracy, has enjoyed GDP growth averaging at around 7 percent per year. Inbound investment from Japan, Europe and the United States is projected to rise steadily.
Hotel Okura’s inaugural Myanmar property is part of an undertaking to expand the group’s global portfolio to 100 properties, primarily in Asia, by 2020. Okura Nikko Hotel Management, a subsidiary of Hotel Okura, currently has seven properties in the pipeline outside Japan, now counting The Okura Prestige Yangon. These include four Okura Hotels & Resorts properties opening in Cappadocia in 2018 and Manila, Phnom Penh and Saigon in 2020, and two Nikko Hotels International properties opening in Bangkok in 2018 and Hai Phong in 2020.