A daring ambush earlier this month by a coalition of rebel groups against the Myanmar military in Pyin Oo Lwin has left the local economy reeling as hotels sit empty and food vendors and tourist attractions struggle for customers.
The sleepy hill town hosted around 2,000 foriegn tourists and 10,000 local visitors a month before the Northern Alliance launched its attacks on August 15, killing three police officers and nine soldiers.
Now local residents and businesses say the number of tourists has dropped to almost zero.
“The city looks as empty as a war zone,” said Ko Gyi of Sein Lan Pyin Oo Lwin, a local environmental group. “Visitors don’t come here anymore. Even the taxi drivers can’t get customers. This hurts livelihoods.”
Staff at local hotels say people are afraid to visit because unexploded artillery shells have been found in the hills surrounding the town.
Pyin Oo Lwin is home to around 250,000 people and large parts of its economy depend on tourism. There are 60 licensed hotels and 120 motels that have seen revenues hit since the attacks.
“Bookings are cancelled. In some hotels, all the rooms are vacant. We usually have fewer guests during the three monsoon months. But it was never as bad as this,” said Wai Lu, secretary of the Pyin Oo Lwin Hotel Zone Association.
Staff at some of the town’s most popular hotels such as Hotel Pyin Oo Lwin, Win Unity Hotel and Hotel Shwe Nan Htike confirmed that guests had cancelled bookings but said they were still optimistic business would return to normal soon.
Soe Tint, who manages a popular local attraction called December Garden, said the number of visitors coming to enjoy the waterfall, streams and fields of lavender there has plummeted from up to 1,000 a day on weekends to a maximum of 300.
And foreign tourists in Mandalay have crossed Pyin Oo Lwin off their itineraries out of fear of more attacks, said tour bus driver Soe Paing Paing.
“When we ask the foreigners if they want to visit Pyin Oo Lwin, since it is a beautiful city, they say, ‘No, there’s a war going on there!’”
It is not just the tourism industry that is suffering. Real estate firms say enquiries have dried up from people hoping to relocate to Pyin Oo Lwins for its mild weather and proximity to Mandalay.
Aye Aye Mon, who owns the SAI SAI Guest House and Real Estate company. said: “We used to receive daily enquiries before. Now, we receive none. When we post advertisements online, we get comments like, ‘I’m afraid of the bombs. I am scared to live there. Not peaceful!’”
“Food vendors are also suffering,” she added. “The wives and families of the staff working here have left the city because they’re scared. So the vendors can’t sell anymore because there are no customers left.”
Ko Gyi of Sein Lan Pyin Oo Lwin said that fake news on Facebook is making the problem worse by stoking rumours that the fighting is still going on.
In an attempt to counter this, hotel owners recently invited journalists from Mandalay to the city for a tour aimed at showing that life was carrying on as usual.
During the tour, Wai Lu gave his view on the Northern Alliance attacks to a crowd of reporters.
The artillery that rebels fired during the attack, he said, “was aimed at Myanmar military targets, but hit Pyin Oo Lwin’s economy.”
