Myanmar kicked off a three-day travel fair in its commercial city of Yangon on Friday for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19.

"We are re-organizing the travel fair in January 2023 after we couldn't hold any event like this in 2020, 2021 and 2022," Naung Naung Han, president of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association, told Xinhua.

The travel association has also tried to organize a travel exhibition in September last year, but it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons, he added.

The tourism exhibition is aimed at benefiting both travel companies and travelers as the country's tourism industry was gradually recovering, he said.

"At the event, travelers can inquire about various travel plans and can get discounts, while travel companies can directly sell their tourism products to the customers and promote their products," he said, adding that it is a marketplace for tourism companies and travelers.

The country's domestic tourism has gradually recovered, and the number of foreign tourists visiting the country also gradually increased after the Southeast Asian country resumed its international commercial flights services in April last year.

More than 170,000 international travelers visited the country in the first eight months of the 2022-2023 fiscal year starting in April last year, data from the country's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism showed. The figure was up from 82,048 visitors who arrived in the country in the same period of the previous fiscal year, official data showed.

The travel fair is scheduled to be held on Jan. 27-29 at the Secretariat Yangon.