Tourists face Myanmar dilemma-boycott or rough it
By Angela Takats
YANGON, May 16 (Reuters) - Shimmering golden above the city of Yangon is the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most popular tourist attraction in Myanmar.Monks draped in red robes chant in front of Buddha statues, worshippers light incense, and tourists stand awed by the majesty of the main stupa shrine, which towers 100 metres (325 feet) and is said to be plated in almost nine tonnes of gold.
But despite the beauty of this and other sites, Myanmar is one of Asia's least-known travel destinations.
The military government has tried hard to promote Myanmar but tourists are not flocking in, partly because of chronic political instability and partly because the country just doesn't have the infrastructure.
Pro-democracy opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who opposes the government and has been kept under house arrest in the cpaital Yangon on and off for more than six of the past 12 years, says tourists should not visit.
She says tourist dollars bolster the military, who have ruled the country formerly known as Burma since 1962, and help keep the generals in power.Tourists, Suu Kyi says, should wait until Myanmar is a democracy before they come.
"TOURISM SHOULD BE DISCOURAGED"
Most pro-democracy activists agree, saying just as foreign companies should be discouraged from investing in the country, so too should tourism.
Two British-based groups, Tourism Concern and the Burma Campaign UK, have even called for a boycott of the popular Lonely Planet travel guides, because Lonely Planet has refused to bow to calls to stop printing its book on Myanmar.
Lonely Planet's founders say they believe tourism to the country will improve the situation there, while a boycott will simply prolong its isolation, making it easier for the military to hold on to power.
Some budget travellers, visiting despite the boycott calls, say their money doesn't help the government.
"When you are on really big group tourism then it's...organised by state-owned companies and the money ends up in the state," said Thomas Bosch from the Netherlands.
"If you spend your money really locally and you are coming here as a backpacker and you use local transport and hire locals then the money is really being spentlocally - and not going to the government."
"If you come as a backpacker, you can (exchange) ideas with the people...and that's always a good thing," Bosch said.
While the government's coffers would certainly benefit from increased tourism, many ordinary people in Myanmar, where the average annual per capita income is less than $300, say they too would stand to gain if more people visited.
Sam Kokweng, from Malaysia, said the lack of development was an essential part of Myanmar's charm.
"ABOUT TO DEVELOP"
"What appeals to me is actually going to parts of Asia that are going to be developed really soon, and to catch it as it's about to develop, and to see the people as they really are, before commercialism sets in," he said. "That's really it I think."
But the lack of development that so charms adventure-hungry backpackers hampers a more mainstream tourist industry.
Some hotels have been built to international standards in recent years in Yangonand the second city Mandalay, but facilities elsewhere are woefully inadequate.
Myanmar's domestic air system has a bad safety record, its roads are poor and its rail system is rickety. Other hassles are odd foreign exchange procedures for tourists and the need to get a visa in advance.
Tourist arrivals in Myanmar are falling far short of the government's target of 500,000 a year. Official figures show 234,900 visited last year, a drop of 9.3 percent from 1999.
By contrast neighbouring Thailand, a country with culture and geography similar to Myanmar, got 9.5 million tourists last year and billions of tourist dollars.
PLAYING DOWN POLITICS
Myanmar's director general of tourism, Khin Maung Latt, plays down the impact ofthe anti-government campaign in discouraging tourists. Infrastructure is the problem, he says.He also blames a shortage of direct flights into the country and the difficulty in getting visas.
"I don't believe (it's) because of that campaign," he said. "It's because of the lack of infrastructure and some of the airlines," he told reporters during a recent conference in Yangon. "We don't have many direct...long-haul flights - that's the constraint for us."