Thoughts on Burma

I have copied the statement from Tourism Concern which we fully support.  In view of these changes, we are able to arrange private tours but we won't be arranging any group tours.  We would like to keep a low profile so that the people of Burma are supported by our efforts as much as possible, as opposed to the junta that continues to reign.

Extract from Tourism Concern's website:
On 4th November 2010, the National League for Democracy (NLD), Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, announced that the full boycott of tourism to Burma should be lifted, and that those wishing to visit Burma in solidarity with the people - either as individuals or in small groups - are now welcome. Following this announcement and having taken guidance from the Burma Campaign UK, with whom Tourism Concern has worked since 1995, we have decided to also lift our call for a full tourism boycott to the country.

However, in line with the NLD recommendation, Tourism Concern continues to support a boycott on package tours and other large tourism operations, such as cruise ships, which are likely to accrue significant revenue to the Burmese junta. In a recent interview with The Times, NLD party leader U Win Tin warned that: “To have a very big cruise ship with hundreds of tourists coming in – that’s a lot of money for the regime, and so we don’t like such big business.”

“Tourism Concern calls on anyone visiting the country to recognise that it is not yet on the path to democratic reform and that people are not free to speak their stories”, says Tricia Barnett, director of Tourism Concern. “The NLD would like visitors to come in solidarity. We ask that people travel independently and ensure that they stay in small, locally owned accommodation, using only independent guides”.

In 2008, Tourism Concern produced a briefing listing hotels and resorts with known links to Burma’s military regime. These hotels are listed under the wider ban on doing business with the military junta established by the European Union.