MYANMAR is becoming a new global hot spot, topping the list of must-see places to visit in 2012. But it's desperately short of hotel rooms, and tourism authorities want avoid the mistakes of mass tourism in other Southeast Asian countries. Jocelyn Gecker reports.

Now that Myanmar is opening to the outside world, good luck getting a hotel room.

Travelers and eager investors are pouring in to explore one of Asia's most untouched countries, filling hotels to capacity, doubling room rates and spilling flight reservations onto wait lists.

As the country sheds its past as an isolated country and taboo travel destination, it is becoming a new global hot spot - topping tourism lists as the must-see place to visit in 2012.

Myanmar is eager for the hard currency that foreigners bring, but is struggling to handle the influx. At the same time, it wonders how widely to throw open the doors - should it be another well-trodden tourist haven like Thailand or should it aim for fewer numbers of visitors to preserve its ancient cultural sights and charm?

For now, Myanmar is the sort of time-warped place that adventurous travelers love. It is an Asian Buddhist wonderland with red-robed monks and bicycle rickshaws where British colonial relics line the streets. There are no Starbucks or McDonald's or name-brand Western hotels - yet.

Laws are being drafted to make it easier and tax-friendly for foreign hotel chains and others to do business. Auctions are under way for dozens of colonial buildings that some developers want to restore as boutique hotels and others want to tear down. Tourism authorities say the country needs more restaurants catering to international tastes, more car rental agencies, more airplanes to shuttle tourists to the sacred temples in Bagan, more English-speaking tour guides, more everything.

"We especially need more hotels, big chain hotels," says Kyi Kyi Aye, a consultant to the Myanmar Tourism Board who is helping promote the country abroad and court foreign investment. "Tourism is booming and that means we have many challenges to overcome."

Travel agents offer tips for travelers: Bring heaps of cash because Myanmar is a cash-only economy. With rare exception, credit cards are not accepted. Leave iPhones and BlackBerrys at home because foreign mobile phones don't work in the country. Be prepared for hot, sweaty sightseeing because taxis are decades-old jalopies without air conditioning.

In 2011, the number of tourist arrivals jumped nearly 30 percent. But Myanmar still received only 816,000 visitors that year, while 19 million visited neighboring Thailand.

Yangon now has 5,000 hotel rooms but only 3,000 are considered "suitable for tourists," says Maung Maung Swe, vice chairman at the Myanmar Tourism Board, who said chains like Marriott and Sheraton have expressed interest in opening branches.

That would come as a relief to hotel managers like Ram Nurani of the 330-room Park Royal Hotel, where every table is full at breakfast, every sofa is taken in the busy lobby and rooms are booked weeks in advance.

"The city needs to build more hotels quickly," Nurani says.

It's the same across town at The Strand, one of the grand colonial hotels of Southeast Asia where Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham slept back when the country was still called Burma. Rooms start at US$550 a night.

"We're fully booked for the month. We try to get people rooms elsewhere, but it's not easy," says employee Khin Sandar, sitting in the chandeliered lobby as a busload of tourists surged in and were politely escorted out.

Another popular tourist attraction is Aung San Suu Kyi, the dignified 66-year-old who became the world's most famous political figure who was under house arrest for two decades.

A busload of South Koreans crowded into her rundown opposition party headquarters in Yangon recently to take pictures and buy T-shirts printed with the face of the Nobel Peace laureate, who was not on the premises.

"We went to her house, too, and took pictures in front of her gate," says Sylvia Rhee, a university music professor from Jinju, South Korea, expressing surprise at the access they gained.

"This used to be a closed country. We were afraid to visit before," she says.

The increase in tourism started after Myanmar held elections in November 2010 and then released Suu Kyi, who is now running for a seat in parliament.

Amid the rush to welcome the world's tourists, there are calls to avoid the pitfalls of nearby countries like Thailand, which benefited from mass tourism while its cities have turned into urban jungles that are magnets for backpackers and sex tourism.

Some suggest aiming for a limited, higher-end tourism market like the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

"Although we're way behind, it's not a bad thing. We want to handle Myanmar with care, it's fragile," says Su Su Tin, who runs a travel agency and is an executive member of a consortium of 100 hotels, airlines and tour operators.

Myanmar strictly controls entry for people with occupations deemed sensitive, such as journalists. Others can enter with tourist or business visas obtained before traveling. Moves to hand out visas on arrival were shelved after it was decided in discussions with the Tourism Ministry to continue limiting tourist arrivals for now.

"We all agreed we should wait to start visas on arrival because that would definitely make travel easier, and anybody could come, but we're not ready for that yet," Su Su Tin says.

Conservationists say the handle-with-care approach should be applied to Myanmar's heritage. Downtown Yangon is lined with grand, deserted colonial buildings that once housed government offices but were vacated after a distant new capital was built a few years ago in the city of Naypyitaw.

Real estate prices are soaring and the government began auctioning buildings last year but agreed to a brief moratorium on sales and demolition pending a conservation strategy, says preservationist Thant Myint.

"Rangoon is one of the last Asian cities with much 19th- and 20th-century architecture intact," says Thant Myint. "We have a narrow window of opportunity to try to avoid the worst mistakes of the rest of the region."

Travelers like American tourist Barbara Ruttenberg agree.

"There are so few places left that haven't been taken over by McDonald's and Western customs," says Ruttenberg, of Providence, Rhode Island, on a tour with 20 other alumnae from Bryn Mawr college that was planned almost a year ago. She has visited 44 countries and always wanted to see Myanmar but wouldn't come while the junta ruled.

"This was a dream deferred," says Ruttenberg, 75. "I gave it to myself as a birthday present. My kids wanted to throw me a party. I said, 'Forget the party, I'm going to Myanmar'."