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Report on Tourism in Burma
By Info-Birmanie • June 24, 2011“Burma will be here for many years, so tell your friends to visit us later. Visiting now is tantamount to condoning the regime.”
The above statement, which dates from 1999, is a famous quote of Aung San Suu Kyi, Laureate of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main Burmese opposition party.
It reminds us that since the call to boycott launched in the mid-90s by the Burmese opponents of the military dictatorship, travelling in Burma remains a moral dilemma that is still relevant fifteen years later. However, some plead in favour of Burmese tourism, forgetting both the opposition’s numerous calls to boycott and the terrible situation in which the Burmese people live.
In May 2011, the NLD has published a policy paper that put an end to the call for boycott but calls for responsible and independent tourism in Burma. It is also a warning against the negative consequences that a misinformed an injudicious tourism can lead to, as regards to the local populations as well as the environment.
Can one visit a country which suffers as one would visit a museum? What can one see of Burma as a tourist?
The Association Info-Birmanie has decided to publish this report in order to bring clarifications to those who consider going to Burma on the ins and outs of the issue of tourism. We consider that the information furnished by the travel agencies only; insisting on Burma’s beauty, the Country “of a thousand and one temples” are insufficient and that it is necessary to have the most amount of information possible in order to decide whether to travel to Burma or not.
The idea is not a call to boycott but to inform as much as we can. In the meantime, what we deplore is the mass tourism as practiced by the tour operators and this is why we wish, via this report to provide the tools needed by the tourists to be aware of their responsibilities.
Download the full report here.
Tags: Info-Birmanie, TourismThis post is in: Business and Human Rights, Economy
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