YANGON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's Mandalay regional government invited investors to develop a new resort in Mandalay, the second largest city in the north, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.

Expression of interest is being sought with real estate developers for the construction, marketing and management of the New Mandalay Resort City project which lies near Pyin Oo Lwin, a city of flower, on the Mandalay-Lashio road.

Covering 40,510 hectares, the project will be implemented in three parts with 2,835 hectares comprising two parts to be developed by the union government, while the remaining part be carried out by the regional government.

With the Ministry of Construction as the joint partner in the project, the conceptual development plan consists of industrial, commercial, residential, logistics, recreation and resort areas.

The regional government set March 31 as the closing date of presenting the expression of interest for the project and short-listed firms will be selected after scrutiny.

According to statistics, tourist arrivals in Mandalay increased by about 100,000 or 26 percent correspondingly, hitting 483,784 in 2017.

In 2016, 385,031 tourists from around the world visited the last royal capital.

The majority of the visitors came from China, France, Germany, Thailand and Britain.

Mandalay is famous for its cultural heritage among international travelers.

The significant tourist attractions of the region include the Bagan Cultural Zone, Golden Palace Monastery, Kuthodaw Pagoda, Maha Myatmuni Pagoda, Mandalay Hill, Pahtodawgyi Pagoda, Mandalay Palace and Mandalay Fort.

Myanmar received 2.9 million tourist arrivals in 2016. In the first eight months of 2017, it had brought in 2.27 million tourists, up 22 percent against the same period of the previous year.

The total tourist figure visiting Myanmar in 2017 is expected to reach 3.5 million.