UK TOUR OPERATORS USING BUSINESSES LINKED TO BURMA’S MILITARY REGIME – SAYS TOURISM CONCERN

UK tour operators going to Burma are using hotels and resorts with known links to Burma’s brutal military dictatorship, according to a new briefing by Tourism Concern.

This includes tourism establishments blacklisted under European Community (EC) trade sanctions because they are owned or directed by members of the regime and regime associates. It also includes tourism establishments which are managed by the regime in partnership with foreign companies under joint venture schemes.

Tricia Barnett, Director of Tourism Concern, says: “It is the responsibility of tour operators to ensure that they abide by the European legislation and do not provide financial benefits to the military dictatorship, which continues to perpetrate appalling human rights abuses against its own people. Given lack of transparency in Burma and the complex overlap between state- and private-owned enterprises, the best way to do this is simply to stop trading with Burma”.

Information regarding blacklisted individuals and their respective tourism enterprises is freely available in the public domain. However, the majority of UK operators frequenting these hotels and resorts state that they avoid using businesses with links to the state authorities. “Tour operators should not provide misleading information to the general public about their ethical credentials. They need to do their homework about which hotels and resorts are known to be profiting the regime”, says Barnett.

European legislation is directly applicable in the UK. However, a loophole in UK law, caused by the Government’s failure to update the Statutory Instrument which makes it an offence to breach the Regulation, means that any violation by a tour operator could currently go unpunished. The Treasury has confirmed that they are in the process of updating the Statutory Instrument, but would not say when it would be implemented.

A breach of the EC Regulation occurs where a tour operator knowingly provides either ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ financial benefits to the regime or regime associates, as listed under the EC trade ban. The Treasury has confirmed that payments to blacklisted tourism businesses could be regarded as ‘indirectly’ for the benefit of their blacklisted owners and directors in certain circumstances. This includes, for example, where the owner or director receives a salary, a loan, or some other diversion of funds from the tourism enterprise in question. “Although it’s impossible to know whether these individuals are deriving any such ‘indirect’ funds from their luxury resorts and hotels, common sense tells us that they’re only going to be involved in the tourism business if they’re making good money from it”, states Barnett.

Tourism Concern’s briefing, How UK tour operators are supporting Burma’s military regime through tourism, also identifies additional hotels and resorts that are reportedly owned by blacklisted individuals, but which are yet to be specified under the European trade ban. Nor are hotels and resorts managed under joint venture schemes with the Burmese state authorities currently included in the ban.

Tourism Concern is calling on the EC to update the existing Council Regulation to include all tourism enterprises owned by blacklisted individuals. It is also calling on the UK Government to close the current loophole in the law and provide adequate guidance to UK tour operators to ensure that they do not risk breaching the EC Regulation.

The full briefing, including the listings of UK tour operators, is available as a download at: TourismConcern.org.uk

Valere Tjolle