Traditional Myanmar women who become wives are used to taking care of family, children and parents because they think it’s their duty while their husbands are out earning money.

One woman who has become a successful businesswoman in this conservative culture is Daw Su Su Tin, 48, who manages four different businesses.

“Family duties prevent most wives from developing as much as they want. Men can work as much as they want because their wives take care of all family duties. It’s not written in any rules or regulations. It’s our culture, which is why we should change our mindset,” she said.

Daw Su Su Tin started her own business with a small travel company when she was in her 20s, after she was already married.

At the time, French company Exo Travel Group was looking for a local partner in Myanmar, so she took a 60 percent stake in the business in 1995.

“I had no work experience with foreigners, but I decided to be their business partner so I could learn from them,” Daw Su Su Tin said.

The company has many offices around the world, and its clients are mostly western travellers.

Daw Su Su Tin also opened Monsoon restaurant with her younger sister in Yangon, the Sanctum Inle resort hotel at Inle Lake, and the Yangon Excelsior hotel as a joint venture with Apple Tree Group in Yangon. She also owns the Annam Group, which imports and distributes food and French cosmetics, and opened the Warehouse wine shop five years ago.

Too many hotels

“My first hotel was the ‘Bagan Lodge’ in Bagan, but I sold it one year later because I couldn’t afford to run three hotels at the same time,” she said.

With the recent downturn in Myanmar tourism, the hotels are not making as much of a profit as she expected.

“I opened Sanctum Inle resort in 2016 after selling Bagan Lodge and opened Yangon Excelsior last August. It was a success shortly after it opened and business is gradually increasing, though not as much as expected,” she said.

She started the travel company with five local staff, she said, adding that her businesses have created about 600 jobs for local people.

When she started Exo Travel Myanmar in 1995, the country lacked reliable transportation, internet, international phone lines, and a banking system to deal with foreign banks, but many of these troubles have since been overcome.

At that time, the military government did not encourage tourism and restricted foreign visitors. Also foreigners were not willing to come to Myanmar because of the military dictatorship, she said.

However, tourism has boomed since the country opened to foreign investment in 2012-13, and her travel company has increased its profits 40pc, she said.

Until 2014, she said, hotel room rates were very expensive due to high demand, and room booking and cancellation were difficult and inconvenient. As a result, Myanmar became known among tourists for being expensive.

Even though Myanmar is no longer more expensive than Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, it is still more costly and has poorer service than Thailand, she said.

Most investors prefer to do business with high-end luxury hotels, but cheaper hotels that are clean and have good service are still needed to satisfy market demand, she said.

However, she opined, it’s difficult for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to build small hotels because of high land prices and interest on bank loans.

“Land prices in Yangon and Mandalay are quite high, so it is not profitable to open 20 to 30-room hotels in big cities. Also, we can’t borrow money from the bank without collateral and interest rates are high. If we take out a loan at 13pc interest and make a 15pc profit, it is not enough to recover our investment, which is why rich businessmen only invest in high-end hotels,” she said.

Daw Su Su Tin borrowed money from a local bank to construct the Bagan Lodge but she could no longer afford the high interest rate, which is why she sold it.

Lack of travel options

She said another reason that Myanmar is expensive is that there are few travel options within the country. Travelling by train or bus is not convenient for foreign travellers, so they have to take domestic flights.

Domestic flights are more expensive than they are in neighbouring countries, and there are no direct international flights to major tourist attractions such as Ngapali beach, Bagan and Inle lake.

“Most international flights land in Yangon and tourists then have to take domestic flights to these sites. Visitors from regional countries here for a weekend holiday also find it inconvenient due to lack of direct flights to these areas. It wastes time and money,” she said.

Business has declined almost 40pc for her travel company since the August 2017 Rakhine State crisis, she said.

“Tourism declined because Western countries changed their minds about Myanmar. They cancelled bookings and they have not made many inquiries since August 2017,” she said.

However, she still welcomes the challenge of running businesses and being the mother of a daughter and a son. “There are many opportunities for women entrepreneurs in our country compared to developed countries because there is much more demand here.”

As for the future, she plans to build hotels in Yangon and Bagan and to expand imports by the Annam Group.

She urged women to “get married and take the challenge of balancing family and work.”