'Traitors' can't deter tourists: Myanmar

'Traitors' can't deter tourists: Myanmar

YANGON (Reuter): Tourist arrivals in Myanmar are up significantly despite attempts by "traitors" and their foreign supporters to derail the tourism industry, Myanmar's state media said yesterday.

"A significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals ... proves that attempts by internal traitors who are relying on alien nations with the help of some foreign correspondents and columnists to hinder the nation's tourism industry ... are unsuccessful," the official Myanmar News Agency (MNA) said.

The agency did not identify the "traitors," but Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy colleagues have urged tourists not to visit Myanmar until democracy is restored.

Suu Kyi has also called on foreign businesses to delay investing in Myanmar until the military rulers move towards democratic rule.

The government has designated 1996 Visit Myanmar (Burma) Year in what Yangon-based diplomats see as a bid to tap the lucrative tourist market.

The MNA said there were 46,337 tourist arrivals in the first four months of the fiscal year that began on April 1, a 57 percent increase from the same period last year.

Authorities originally had hoped 500,000 people would visit the country during 1996, but industry analysts said the target was far too high given Myanmar's creaking infrastructure. The 1996 target was later lowered to around 250,000-300,000 arrivals.

Some 150,000 foreigners visited Myanmar last year, according to official statistics.