NLD Condemn Tourism in Burma

Burma's main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Friday issued a statement condemning tourism, saying it damages the environment.The opposition slammed the policy of tourism in a five-page report, highlighting the impact on culture, society and environment.

The NLD statement said that the establishment of tourism projects frequently forced locals to relocate and often included programs of forced labor.If they [investors/ developers] take responsibility, respect ethics and preserve the ecology, we would readily embrace tourism, said Soe Win, an environmental researcher.

In 1996, the NLD called for a boycott of Visit Myanmar Year 1996, claiming that projects were rife with both human rights violations and cronyism.The biggest challenge is to reduce the disadvantages from the tourism industry and create benefits that develop industry and improve the economy of the country, the NLD wrote in Friday's statement.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, a Rangoon-based tour operator said some tourists “steal the culture of the country.With regard to Shan State's famed sightseeing spot, Inle Lake, she said that so many hotels were being built that the lake is in danger of disappearing.

Burma's tourism sector never recovered after the violence of the Saffron Revolution in 2007, she said.However, the income from tourism generally flows directly into the pockets of the public and the industry creates more jobs, she said.

Burma's state-run The New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday urged all those engaging in tourism industry to provide their best service to lure in a greater number of tourists in the interests of the nation.Meanwhile, the Norwegian government lifted its tourism boycott on Burma and encouraged their citizens to visit the country, according to Oslo-based Dagdladet.

There are nearly 600 hotels, guest houses or resorts across Burma, and some 6,000 licensed tour guides, according to government data.However, observers say infrastructure remains a problem the country has highly restricted Internet access, credit cards are all but unknown, and transportation is slow and unreliable.

According to Bangkok-based Pacific Travel Association, in 2010, some 300,000 foreign tourists visited Burma a 30 percent increase from 2009. One reason for the increase was the stabilized political situation, it said.

However, Burma's tourist figures pale when compared to neighboring Thailand, which regularly receives some 14 million visitors a year. Vietnam receives about four million, while about two million visit Cambodia and Laos.

On Monday, in Rangoon, Burma's Forestry Minister Win Tun met with 15 representatives of environmental NGOs to discuss eco-tourism. It was the first environmental meeting called by the new government since it was sworn in on March 30.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, U Ohn, the general-secretary of the Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association, said he welcomed open discussion on environmental issues.

Source = irrawaddy.org