12/02/12, 11:37:53 EST

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Orient-Express advises Burma tourists to defer trips

news.com.au

THE Orient-Express Hotels Trains and Cruises tourism group has advised its guests travelling to Burma to defer their trips until at least the end of October amid continuing unrest in the south-east Asian nation.

THE Orient-Express Hotels Trains and Cruises tourism group has advised its guests travelling to Burma to defer their trips until at least the end of October amid continuing unrest in the south-east Asian nation.

The group owns The Governor's Residence in Rangoon, a five-star property, which it acquired last year as part of the Pansea group of hotels, which also include its resorts in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Koh Samui Thailand and Luang Prabang, Laos.

It also owns the cruiser known as the Road to Mandalay, which travels the Ayeyarwady or Irrawaddy River between Mandalay and Bagan and Mandalay and Bhamo.

In Australia it owns The Observatory Hotel in Sydney and Lilianfels, Blue Mountains.

A spokeswoman for Orient-Express says the group is an apolitcal organisation which supports opening the country to tourism as a catalyst for change.

It hopes to be able to stay in Burma for the long-term future of the country.

However, because of recent troubles in the country, guests who have booked holidays there will be given full refunds or asked to select new dates. If there is still trouble at the end of October they can further defer.

The company employs around 110 Burmese at its hotel and around 150 people on the cruise.

Around 1000 people directly benefit from the trade and money guests spend while there, it says.

The warning may be upgraded and new advice will be added as information comes to hand.

A new estimate by a dissident group claims 138 people were killed and about 6,000 detained, including about 2400 Buddhist monks, when the regime smashed the anti-government protests in early October.

The group, the Democratic Voice of Burma, is a dissident news group based in Norway with close ties to pro-democracy activists.

Another report said many of the arrested monks were being held at a former race course, where they were forced to give up their robes and change into civilian clothes.

Even before the recent troubles a debate had raged about whether people should visit Burma as tourists or boycott all travel.

It's a debate that applies in other hotspots around the world but few destinations raise more moral dilemmas than the troubled country.

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi argues against tourists coming to Burma, but others within the country have called for visitors to come and see for themselves.

There is no doubt that tourism is an important source of income to countless numbers of independent operators, hotels, bars and restaurants. On the other hand, the government benefits directly from visa fees and other taxes paid by tourists.

However, with less than a quarter of a million tourists per year, whatever the government earns from this sector is dwarfed by income from oil, gas, gems and illicit logging.

Most say the question is one best left to the well-informed individual conscience.

 Printable Version  | published Oct 08, 2007