Wednesday, October 03, 2007


Travel guide accused of supporting Burmese junta

MELBOURNE travel book publisher Lonely Planet is included in a "dirty list" of businesses accused of supporting the Burmese military regime.

The list, compiled by The Burma Campaign UK, says Lonely Planet "publishes a guide to Burma which encourages tourists to visit the country" and undermines "calls by Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's democracy movement for tourists to stay away."

Lonely Planet publisher Simon Westcott told BusinessDay in an email that the company provides "objective information" for travellers and cautioned against travelling to Burma "at this time of heightened civil unrest".
"No one reading our guide could be in any doubt about our opinion of the current regime, which we describe as 'abominable'," Mr Westcott said.

Debbie Stothard, a co-ordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Myanmar, a regional pro-democracy body, said the Burma Campaign UK list, which names 127 companies, was probably the most comprehensive collection of foreign companies involved in Burma.
Lonely Planet is joined by Australian travel company Peregrine Adventures and its associate, Gecko's Adventures.

Footnote:
Above from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, the day on which the sale od Lonely Planet was announced. See yeserday's blog for that story.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Free Burma!
International Bloggers' Day for Burma on the 4th of October

International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons. These Bloggers are planning to refrain from posting to their blogs on October 4 and just put up one Banner then, underlined with the words „Free Burma!“.

www.free-burma.org