Yangon, May 23 (IANS): After its progress towards democracy following years of military rule, Myanmar has seen a huge inflow of tourists, with 1,500 people arriving every day by air, a media report said.

The figure last year was only around 600-700.

Tourists mainly came through the Yangon, Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay and Nyaung Oo international airports, Xinhua reported citing the Weekly Eleven News.

There were 364,743 tourist arrivals at the Yangon airport and 26,433 at the other international airports.

Tourist arrivals in the country are expected to reach 1.5 million in 2012.

According to statistics from the ministry of hotels and tourism, the number of tourist arrivals was more than 800,000 in 2011, up by more than 24,000 or three percent from the 790,000 in 2010.

The figures for the first two months of 2012 represented 98,486 people who came mainly from North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Myanmar Tourism Promotion Board said.

Till February 2012, there were 739 hotels in Myanmar, including 22 with foreign investments, four joint-venture hotels, six government hotels and 707 private-owned ones.

Myanmar earned $319 million in 2011 from the hotel and tourism sector, up 26 percent from the $254 million earned in 2010.