United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
Tour Operators Burma Legal Loophole Closed
Saturday, 23 Aug, 2009
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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressing supporters before her election win and arrest
Following campaigning by Tourism Concern, the Treasury has updated legislation making it an offence under UK law to breach European regulations regarding trade with Burma, closing a legal loophole that had existed since 2005.
The new legislation makes it an offence for UK firms, including tour operators, to provide financial benefits to prominent members of the country’s military regime and their associates. These individuals have financial sanctions placed against them and are listed under the European regulations along with their business interests, which include a number of luxury hotels and resorts. The financial sanctions are part of a series of targeted measures deployed by the European Community (EC) in an effort to pressure the Burmese junta to implement meaningful democratic reform.
Tourism Concern has identified 15 UK tour operators regularly using tourism enterprises with known links to the regime, including eight which frequent hotels and resorts owned by individuals listed under the European regulations. A further 10 operators use hotels owned jointly by foreign investors and an arm of the Burmese regime government.
Although it is virtually impossible to prove that UK tour operators using the hotels and resorts listed under the EC regulations are providing ‘direct’ financial benefits to their regime-linked owners, there are now sanctions in place if they do breach the rules. Tricia Barnett, director for Tourism Concern, says: “This issue highlights the opaque, complex overlap between government and business interests in Burma, which makes it impossible to travel to the country without financially benefiting the military regime.”
The Treasury has included tourism trade associations in their outreach programme to
apprise them of the new legislation, after Tourism Concern’s research indicated that very few UK tour operators are aware of the EC regulations.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will also be taking forward suggestions by
Tourism Concern for additional hotels and resorts to be added to the regulations, after the organisation identified them as belonging to listed regime members and associates. This includes a number of prominent hotels managed under joint venture schemes with the Burmese government and foreign companies, which clearly generate direct profits for the military junta.
“Tourism Concern welcomes these positive steps by the Government, which signals their recognition of the important role that tourism plays in propping up Burma’s oppressive regime”, says Barnett. “We also note that Audley Travel has stopped using the listed hotels and resorts since our findings were first released, and hope that other tour operators will follow suit.”
While the UK Government neither actively promotes nor discourages tourism to Burma, the FCO and the Treasury state that they would discourage UK operators from using the ‘blacklisted’ hotels.
Tourism Concern supports the position of democratically elected leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who called for a tourism boycott in 2002 in recognition of the benefits tourism brings to the regime.
Valere Tjolle
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