AIR MILES drops Orient Express Burma Tours

The Burma Campaign UK today welcomed news that AIR MILES will no longer offer Orient Express’s Road to Mandalay tours in return for AIR MILES points. The Burma Campaign UK had contacted AIR MILES asking them to withdraw the promotion – which had featured on their website.

“This puts even more pressure on Orient Express,” said Anna Roberts, Campaigns Officer at the Burma Campaign UK. “They are becoming increasingly isolated within their own industry. Kuoni, which offered Orient’s Burma tours to its customers, is pulling out at the end of the year, and now AIR MILES is refusing to promote the tours as well.”

Pressure on companies operating tours to Burma has grown considerably since Burma’s military dictatorship arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and massacred up to 100 of her supporters on May 30th last year. Aung San Suu Kyi is now reported to be on hunger strike, and there are growing concerns for her health.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been calling for a tourist boycott since 1996. Tourism is a vital source of income for the dictatorship in Burma, providing it with millions of pounds every year. Most responsible travel companies have now pulled out of Burma, but a few remain, helping to fund the regime that has imprisoned Suu Kyi.

The Burma Campaign UK praised AIR MILES for their decision. “They have acted responsibly,” said Anna Roberts. “As soon as we alerted them to the ethical concerns they took swift action and dropped the promotion. The few remaining travel companies left in Burma could learn a lesson from them.”

So far this year Kuoni, Abercrombie & Kent, Intrepid Travel, Travelsphere, Scott Dunn Travel, and Silks Steps have all announced that they are ending tours to Burma. In July the British government asked travel companies not to operate tours to Burma.

For more information contact Anna Roberts or Mark Farmaner, Media Officer, on 020 728 7377

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