Lonely Planet Boycott Planned
February 21, 2008 by daranee
The TUC has called for a boycott of Lonely Planet guidebooks until the Burma edition is withdrawn from sale.The trade union umbrella organisation says travel to Burma is unethical and helps prop up the military government.
The pros and cons of travel to Burma are set out at the front of its guidebook:
It’s reasons not to go include:
* Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi opposes tourism
* The military government uses forced labour
* International tourism seen as ’stamp of approval’
* Money from tourism goes to the military governmentReasons to go are:
* Tourism one of few areas to which locals have access
* Carefully targeted spending reaches individuals in need
* Locals have told travel guide authors they are in favour
* Abuses less likely in areas frequented by foreigners
Since this is from the BBC, I am unsure of the importance of this labor union; however, I have often wondered why some tourists must keep pushing the envelope to go further and further off the tourist track. Some tourists consider it more pure to go to a country that they believe has not been modernized or suffered the effects of capitalism. Personally, I think it is a bit of self-denial since those are the exact qualities of the home country that give tourists the freedom to travel.
So-called Ecotourism has been criticized for damaging the precious environments that are visited all in a quest to see the last unsullied spots on earth. It’s a vicious circle. I have a friend who works for a tour ship that goes to Antarctic and the Galapagos Islands. How long until that becomes as commonplace as your typical whale watching boat in the Puget Sound?
TUC is the British equivalent of the AFL-CIO. In more militant times it was very powerful in Britain, with different unions coming out on strikes in support of each other if one of them was threatened. Since the 80’s its lost importance but is still relevant. This wont cause tourism to Burma to end, but the TUC has a lot of influence on the labour party so it’ll probably have at least some effect.