'Responsible Tourism' Begins at Home

The debate about whether it is appropriate to visit Burma is over. It ended when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), changed their policy from calling for a tourism boycott, which they had done since 1996, to calling for “responsible tourism.”

The questions now are: How does one travel to Burma responsibly? And what does Burma have to do to promote, or at least make possible, responsible tourism?

Yeni is news editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].

In an interview with the Associated Press, Suu Kyi said that while large-scale tourism, such as package tours, were not encouraged, "individuals coming in to see, to study the situation in the country might be a good idea."

For this to happen, however, individuals must be able go where they would like to go, see what they would like to see, speak to who they would like to speak to and spend where they would like to spend, all without too much inconvenience and discomfort (not every responsible tourist can be expected to be a hardcore traveler).

In addition, truly "responsible travel" would support local businesses and create income for local people, minimize the potentially negative cultural and environmental impacts of tourism while helping to conserve the country’s natural and cultural heritage, and at least indirectly support some of those who cannot support themselves due to age or disability.

This is not an impossible mission. Responsible tourism is effectively practiced nowadays in neighboring countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. And the results speak for themselves: Burma received about 300,000 visitors in 2010, while Thailand regularly receives some 14 million visitors a year, Vietnam receives about four million and each of Cambodia and Laos about 2 million.

So why is it that Burma cannot follow the same path towards attracting tourists and achieve the same results as its neighbors?

To begin with, the fundamentals of tourism in Burma need to be reformed and developed before responsible tourists can, as Suu Kyi says, come to see and study the situation.

First, unlike its neighboring countries who successfully promote tourism, Burma is not a member state of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which has called on all tourism stakeholders, including those in the government and private sectors, to integrate the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in their relevant legislation, professional practices and codes of conduct.

Second, Burma should reduce its restrictions on tourists. Much of the country is off limits to foreign travelers, and many land routes to the more remote areas that tourists can visit are closed. Some routes are unsafe due to ongoing conflicts between the government and ethnic armed groups, but bureaucratic steps such as applying for permission to visit those restricted areas that are considered safe are unnecessary and discourage visitors from seeing the true Burma. In addition, allowing tourists to enter the country by land, rather than forcing them to fly, would increase the number of non-package tourist arrivals.

Third, the Burmese government should reform its overall system of the transportation, which is in a poor state. Many independent travelers complain that they cannot make an accurate travel plan because buses and cars frequently break down and trains are often delayed.

Even travel by domestic airplane is not a convenient and comfortable choice. For example, in order to get a seat on an Air Bagan flight to Rangoon from Myitkyina, the capital city of Burma’s northern Kachin State, one Thai traveler had to fill out an application at the airline office and wait to see if she would be awarded the seat. Luckily, she got on the flight, but upon her return to Thailand said: “I couldn’t believe it was an airline office.” This does not sound like someone who will soon visit the country again.

The patience of travelers to Burma is also tested by security checks at local airports, which lack basic modern technology, so passengers must have every bag checked by hand. once on board the plane, passengers cannot even be sure that their itinerary will remain as planned—many flights either add or remove scheduled stops after taking off. For example, a Rangoon-Bagan route can become a Rangoon-Mandalay-Bagan route, with the resulting delay in arrival time.

In a country where anything can happen at any time, tourists need to patient.