Shiny fat ribbons of water and lush foliage float towards us on the approach to Myanmar. A wall of heat is waiting outside. The taxi threads its way slowly into Yangon through mid-afternoon traffic past colonial era buildings, concrete and bamboo scaffolding and towards the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.
(Michael Amendolia)
Security has been tightened after a series of small bomb blasts. No one has claimed responsibility but the government blames ethnic rebel groups. Check points are set up outside the bigger hotels while bag searches are mandatory inside.
The night before we arrive an explosion in a ninth floor bathroom injures an American tourist at Traders Hotel, now part of the Shangri-La group, at one time allegedly owned by the son of a drug lord. Tourists flock there, not least because it is one of the few places to operate reliable Internet broadband.
Temple bells begin ringing well before dawn. The sound is soothing but religious tensions persist. In this overwhelmingly Buddhist country, anti-Muslim violence has left two hundred people dead and tens of thousands homeless in the past year alone.
Partisan restaurants bear the numbers 969 that are associated with a group of Buddhist extremists led by Ashin Wirathu, a monk accused of inciting hatred against Muslims. A volunteer driver who drives us to and from the Yangon Eye Hospital glues a small Buddhist statue to his dashboard as a sign of his faith.
The violence is shaking Myanmar as it opens up to foreign investment, expertise and tourists after decades of military rule and political and economic isolation.
The Central Statistical Organisation anticipates 1.5 million visitors in 2013, up 500,000 on last year's figures. Even before the introduction of the nominally civilian government in 2011 tourist numbers were on the rise.
The majority are from Thailand, China, Japan and the United States. Australians account for around 3 per cent, and such is the demand that tourist visas can take up to three weeks to process in Canberra.
What visitors find is a country of great natural beauty but also one in which only a quarter of the population has access to electricity, where fixed and mobile phone services are patchy, ATMs rare, hotels relatively expensive and there is a shortage of trained hospitality staff.
Myanmar's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism has ambitious goals. It wants to "maximize tourism's contribution to national employment and income generation, and ensure that the social and economic benefits of tourism are distributed equitably." (Draft Master Plan, June, 2013)
It could be some time before there is any trickle down to a population whose average income is less than $US2.50 a day. And there are other challenges including a lack of infrastructure away from the main cities.
One of my colleagues who visits an eye camp in Bago, 70 kilometres from Yangon, is intrigued to come across a room full of clerks sitting neatly in rows recording patients' details on manual typewriters.
Then there is the question of access. Last year Curtis S. Chin, a former US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, travelled from the restive Rakhine state to the one-time and present capital cities of Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw.
"Yet, I went nowhere that the government did not allow me to go or to see, so who knows what continues to remain hidden from me and other visitors," he says. "The reports of non-governmental organisations and of development agencies continue to tell of human rights violations and persistent poverty and unrest."
A taxi driver with a science degree who says he can't afford to work in his chosen field because of the poor pay is skeptical about the degree of real political change. "You can't call this a democracy," he says. "The truth is the military still controls the government and most of the big business."
It's a view explored frankly by go-Myanmar.com in the 'Responsible Travel' section of the company's website.
"Travel for foreigners is generally very safe, with amongst the lowest crime rates in Southeast Asia. But high-level corruption and entrenched interests are widespread; HIV/AIDS is a big problem, with some of the highest prevalence rates in Asia; child labour, including in the armed forces, remains all too common; and illegal drug production (and consumption) is rife in border areas."
The company's founder Marcus Allender says Myanmar is under particular scrutiny in the west because it's such a new and fast-changing market.
He points out that millions of people seem happy to visit China, Vietnam, Cambodia and many other countries despite clear reservations about governance and human rights in those places.
"But there's no doubting that tourism in Myanmar is a complex issue, that land rights and cultural and environmental conservation are definitely areas of concern and that there is a long way to go," he says.
Some things are changing. Five years ago visitors to Yangon International Airport would routinely slip immigration staff a small consideration to smooth their entry to the country. Not anymore.
Authorities are also relaxing their attitude toward the country's critics. A journalist who was banned from entering Myanmar after writing extensively and unflatteringly about the previous ruling junta has been allowed to return.
He seems slightly bemused by the latest turn of events. "People are beginning to talk about politics in public. It's something that wouldn't have happened even 12 months ago."
I'm reluctant to leave. We join bumper to bumper traffic heading for the airport. Clouds gather as the plane lifts into the air and heads towards the coast. Myanmar is bathed in a last ray of sunshine then slowly disappears from sight.
Sally Watson is a former SBS journalist and now a Media Advocacy Specialist with The Fred Hollows Foundation.
Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/11/07/blog-ethics-of-tourism-in-myanmar/
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