Should You Travel to Burma?

Update 2011: Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who spent years under house arrest, was freed and restrictions on her movements lifted. A number of democratic reforms have been undertaken by the government and she says while these are promising, the world should watch closely to see if reforms are genuine. The story below was written before the reforms.

The question of whether you should travel to Burma (as Myanmar is often called) is one that makes ink flow and blood boil. Some say Absolutely Not, while others believe a Burma boycott harms everyday citizens, not the military regime.

The country is run by a harsh military regime, and international organizations have documented many human rights violations in Burma.

I've been to Burma three times, once as a backpacker and twice as a journalist in the later 1990. As a reporter I wrote stories on forced labor, HIV/AIDS, minorities and many other topics. Was that the right thing to do? I believe so. Many people read the stories and I hope their awareness about a repressive regime increased as a result. But that was work.

With hindsight, I feel far less comfortable about my own personal backpacking trip, and I'm not certain I would do it again. It's a difficult call, and requires an open mind and constant reevaluation, because there are arguments to both go and stay away.

In May 2008 Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country killing tens of thousands, leaving more than a million homeless and focusing the world's attention on the country. Any kind of travel to Burma - it had been developing rapidly until then - came to a standstill and it took time even for aid workers and journalists to return. As travel picked up again, questions resurfaced about travel to Myanmar.

Arguments in favor of travel to Burma

A number of people support travel to Burma. In fact Lonely Planet guides, by publishing a Burma guidebook, have attracted singular ire and criticism from the boycott Burma lobby and many readers. LP argue that objective information is needed on the country and that, while they do not support the regime, people should be allowed to make up their own minds.

Here are some of the arguments used by those who oppose a travel ban to Burma and believe travel will help the country's people:

• visits by foreigners remind the Burmese that they are not being forgotten by the world community and keeps them informed of the world outside

• travelers and journalists can tell the outside world about human rights violations in Burma and promote action against the military regime

• tourism provides jobs and income for ordinary people who work in the tourist industry

• no single leader or luminary can speak for all Burmese, so calls for boycotts by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi should not be seen as necessarily reflecting the will of the majority

Shwezigon Pagoda, Bagan
jpslim via Flickr CC
• other countries have equally repressive regimes and no one is calling for their boycott

• rather than boycott travel, which benefits the average person, pressure should be brought to bear on the foreign oil and gas companies that are mining the country's resources, using forced labor and paying huge sums to the government for the right to do so

• encouraging greater investment could help open up the country and promote democracy

• boycotts don't work - and they harm citizens more than governments

• democracy won't be created by eliminating freedomssuch as those to travel or share information

Voices for Burma is one group in favor of responsible tourism to Burma.

Arguments against travel to Burma

There appear to be more and louder voices calling for a boycott of Burma and travel ban.

The most compelling is that of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the national elections in Burma in 1990 and has since been almost constantly under house arrest.

She has said: "Burma will be here for many years, so tell your friends to visit us later. Visiting now is tantamount to condoning the regime."

Calls for bans on travel to Burma have become louder since the military's actions against protesting monks and Burmese citizens in September 2007. Here's what supporters of a boycott have to say about staying away:

• Burma uses forced and child labor to build tourist accommodations and roads and so doesn't respect the most basic of human rights

• money spent in the country helps prop up and fund a repressive military regime

• the government uses torture of political prisoners

• discouraging tourism will put economic pressure on the government

• rape is used by the military as a weapon of war against women from minority groups

• the military government believes tourism will help legitimize their regime

• people are systematically displaced to make room for tourism-related projects such as airports

• Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected pro-democracy government (which was never allowed to take power) has asked tourists to stay away and their call should be respected

A good overview of why you should stay away from Burma is presented by the Burma Campaign UK.

If you do decide to travel to Burma...

...at least follow a few simple guidelines:

• read as much as you can about Myanmar politics - be highly informed before going

• don't stay at government-run hotels - choose small, locally-owned guesthouses instead

• write to your elected politicians and ask them to take on the issue of Burma

• sign petitions against the government of Myanmar

• try to publish a piece on your trip to Burma when you return, either on your blog or in a newspaper

• try to raise awareness of Burma with your friends, colleagues, or online

• travel independently, not as part of a tour, most of which are linked to the regime

To go or not to go? It's not an easy decision, but it is your call.

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