Skift Take
ASTA’s new Myanmar chapter and planned partnership with Myanmar tourism will give travel advisors new opportunities to learn about an emerging destination. However, it also raises ethical concerns about supporting a country that engages in ethnic cleansing.
Myanmar is the newest chapter location for the American Society of Travel Advisors, a move that reflects growing interest in an intriguing, once off-limits destination, but also comes amid concerns about the ethics of promoting tourism to a country rife with controversy over human rights abuses and even genocide.
While Myanmar’s emergence from over 50 years of military rule and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has opened the doors to global tourism, the government’s forced evacuation of an estimated 900,000 Rohingya Muslims, many of whom now languish in refugee camps in Bangladesh, has given pause to some tour operators and travelers about visiting there.
New Chapter
Earlier this month, ASTA announced the formation of the new chapter, along with plans to work with Myanmar on a variety of projects. These include a pavilion at the ASTA Global Convention in August and a Myanmar Road Show to meet with U.S. travel advisors that would include tourism education and training.
Bob Duglin, the travel trade group's vice president of international membership and expansion, traveled to Myanmar earlier this month to meet with tourism offic
