Myanmar suffers steep drop in foreign tourists

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200811251263.htm

YANGON (AP): A Myanmar news journal says foreign tourist numbers are down by half at one of the country's most revered Buddhist sites after the country was hit by a devastating cyclone in May that killed more than 84,000 people.

The Weekly Eleven news journal says foreign tourists visiting the famed Shwedagon pagoda fell to 25,380 during May through November compared with 53,841 in the same period last year.

The tourism sector across the impoverished country has been hit hard following Cyclone Nargis in May. The storm killed 84,537, left another 53,836 people missing, and caused a vast trail of destruction across the Irrawaddy delta.

The military has held authoritarian power in the Southeast Asian nation since 1962.