The British government has announced it will be writing to all travel organisations with links to Burma asking them to end their involvement in tourism to the country. Foreign Office minister Mike O’Brien made the announcement in a debate on Burma in the House of Commons just before calling on British American Tobacco to close its factory there.
The Burma Campaign UK – which has campaigned for many years to stop companies operating tours to Burma – welcomed the move by the British Government. The Burma Campaign has been lobbying the government to take a tougher line on tourism to Burma.
“This is an endorsement of what we have been saying for years,” said Yvette Mahon, Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “Travel firms operating in Burma are helping to fund the regime, they have to stop.”
Foreign Office minister Mike O’Brien MP said in the debate on 2nd July:
“In 1998, the late Derek Fatchett wrote to travel associations in Britain explaining why the Government were concerned about their encouragement of travel in Burma. In the light of the deteriorating situation there, I propose to write to all travel organisations with any links with tourism in Burma. There are very few of them, but if any are involved, we shall target them and ask them not to allow, encourage or participate in tourism in Burma. Some people go to Burma for their own reasons, and we want to discourage them from doing so.”
Following a crackdown on the democracy movement on 30th May and the massacre of up to 100 democracy supporters, the Burma Campaign UK vowed to step up its campaign against tourism to Burma and has also written to tour operators. Earlier this year Kuoni announced it is to end tours to Burma following pressure by the Burma Campaign UK. This week Travelsphere Holidays also announced it is to end trips to Burma “for commercial and moral reasons.” The Burma Campaign UK is currently preparing a major campaign against Orient Express, one of the last significant tour operators in Burma.
A decade ago the regime in Burma identified tourism as a key potential source of income. In no other country are human rights abuses and tourism so closely linked. Slave labour has been widely used to build tourist infrastructure and over a million people forced to leave their homes. Burma’s regime claims it earns $100 million a year from tourism. It spends over 40 percent of its budget on the military.
Around thirty tour operators feature on a ‘dirty list’ of companies in Burma. The list will be updated later this month.
For more information contact Yvette Mahon, Director of Burma Campaign UK,or Mark Farmaner, Media Officer, on 020 7281 7377