Shedding light on how money is spent from heritage site ticket sales

When you hand over your money to enter a heritage site do you ever wonder where your money goes?

Anyone imagining that money from ticket sales is plowed into archaeological research or heritage preservation activities will be saddened to learn the truth, at least as far as Myanmar's famed Bagan Archaeological Area is concerned. Bagan is one of the country's top tourist attractions and on UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage sites since 1996.

Bagan pagoda (credit G. Kipling)

However, as revealed in a recent tender, the agreement reached between the Government and the Myanmar Tourism Federation (MTF), which took over ticket sales for the Archaeological Area at the beginning of March, provides for only two percent of revenues to be spent on conservation and maintenance. The remainder is split between the state's coffers (90 percent) and MTF (8 percent).

Reportedly, the site attracted more than 240,000 visitors in the past year, generating USD4.1 million in ticket sale revenues.

Bagan pagoda (credit G. Kipling)

Given the poor state of repair of many pagodas in Bagan - not to mention renovations of a dubious quality - it is a shame that the Myanmar government did not see to reinvest more in the preservation of this unique site.