Derek Tonkin was the UK’s Ambassador to Vietnam 1980-82, a Minister at the British Embassy in South Africa 1983-86 and Ambassador to Thailand and Laos 1986-89. He has chaired the Vietnam-Britain Business Association and the Thai-Britain Business Association and was chair and director of Ockenden International refugee charity from 1990 to 2003. He has a longstanding interest in Burma and frequently writes on the issues surrounding tourism to and engagement with Burma.

Tourism to Burma: the Dilemma for the Traveller

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate currently under house arrest in Burma, has frequently been quoted as asking overseas tourists to delay their visits to her country until there is perceptible progress towards democracy. Her view is generally endorsed by the party of which she is Secretary-General, the National League for Democracy, which won nearly 81% of the seats in a general election in 1990. However, there is strong anecdotal evidence that the rank and file of the NLD do not agree with her. Other non-NLD pro-democracy leaders, like U Khun Htun Oo, whose Shan Nationalities League for Democracy won 23 seats in the 1990 elections, are most unlikely to share her view: as he was, until his business was closed down at the time of his recent arrest, Chief Executive of the Rangoon branch of the Overseas Courier Service, the Japan-based equivalent of DHL, whose main clients included tourist organisations and hotels.

Tourism to any country might be suggestive of political normality, which is certainly not the case in Burma. Daw Suu’s concerns are that tourism might fund an oppressive regime and give status and recognition to the junta. On the other hand there are those who argue that isolating and ostracising oppressive regimes may even delay their reform unless there is universal support for such policies - in the case of Burma visitors from China, Japan and other Asian countries, supported by their governments, have no such inhibitions about visiting. Chinese overseas tourism is expanding at a rapid rate, while the prosperity of many countries in Asia has encouraged their citizens to travel.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently referred to human rights abuses in Burma and said that he would “urge anyone who may be thinking of visiting Burma on holiday to consider carefully whether by their actions they are helping to support the regime and prolong such dreadful abuses". There are many, however, who might conclude after careful consideration that their visit, far from helping to support the regime, might indeed serve to promote the cause of freedom and democracy in Burma. As Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organisation, has put it: “I understand that Aung San Suu Kyi may not like it, but tourism may be a profound factor in laying the ground for democracy.”

Discussion in Britain on the issues involved is rarely pursued through reasoned argument. An assumption too frequently made is that all tourism must be a kind of vacuous “holidaying” in which tourists have chosen Burma this year mainly as a change from Majorca or the Greek Islands. Yet travel and tourism are difficult to define. The WTO has described tourism as “the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited”. Writers on tourism provide more romantic definitions. Some speak of tourism as a sacred journey in western culture, a time of great expectations and disappointments, and a way to define what it means to live a life. Other authorities see tourism not only as an interactive process, but also as a vehicle for world peace. For others still, tourism can be defined as the science, art, and business of attracting and transporting visitors, accommodating them, and graciously catering to their needs and wants.

What is clear is that travel and tourism are far more than simply going on holiday. It is significant that twice as many visitors go to Burma as individual travellers as do on package tours. Many travellers pursue what is described as eco-tourism, while cultural tourism is especially relevant to Burma. Those with special interests in flora and fauna, education, music, ethnology, archaeology, languages, human civilizations, and a thousand and one scientific and cultural pursuits might choose to visit Burma “on holiday” simply to see what there might be in the country of interest in their professional or amateur fields. Such visits frequently lead to unexpected and unintended contacts with local enthusiasts, and subsequent associations can only be seen as valuable and to be warmly encouraged.

Travel operators and tourist agencies regrettably fail only too frequently to provide information about the unusual and complex situation in Burma. Few explain that “Myanmar” is now the official name of the country, while “Burma” is still used widely in the Western world, not least because the country is better known by this name and because Myanmar was introduced by an unelected military junta. A responsibility rests with travel representatives to do more than extol the scenic wonders of the “Golden Land”, the hospitality of its people, the enticing beaches of Ngapali and the mysteries of Bagan.

There is much to be said for discouraging mass tourism to Burma at the present time, and from my own reading of what Daw Suu has said, and from my own discussions with her in December 1999, I have little doubt that mass tourism is her main concern – a concern which I think many of us might share. But I have no reason to suppose that she is against enlightened tourism by those who have taken the trouble to try to understand the present situation in Burma, and have particular reasons or interests for wishing to visit.

The debate in Britain on travel and tourism to Burma has hitherto been pursued in over-simplistic terms, as though all travellers are “holiday-makers” out for a good time. Those who are so inclined would do better to keep to Ibiza and Pattaya. But there are many travellers who are perceptive, sensitive, discreet, intelligent and sympathetic and it would in my view be a serious mistake to seek to discourage them from visiting Burma. They will do much more good than any possible harm.

Derek Tonkin