The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice has launched an initiative aimed at upholding ethical tourism in Sri Lanka after finding that British tour operators were offering holiday packages that commercially benefits alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses.
The #ThinkAgain campaign on ethical tourism in Sri Lanka aims to inform tourists of hotels, airlines and attractions that have links to the Sri Lankan military.
Writing in the Huffington Post, the co-director of the campaign, Lucy Popescu, categorically outlined why Sri Lanka was not the best place for ethical tourists to holiday, despite travel organisations such as Lonely Planet stating otherwise.
Below are some excerpts from Popescu’s article,
The #ThinkAgain campaign on ethical tourism in Sri Lanka aims to inform tourists of hotels, airlines and attractions that have links to the Sri Lankan military.
Writing in the Huffington Post, the co-director of the campaign, Lucy Popescu, categorically outlined why Sri Lanka was not the best place for ethical tourists to holiday, despite travel organisations such as Lonely Planet stating otherwise.
Below are some excerpts from Popescu’s article,
“What many tourists do not know is that the new peace in Sri Lanka has come at a high cost to freedom of expression and the human rights of citizens. The country is now rated the fourth most dangerous place in the world for journalists, higher even than Afghanistan. More than fifteen journalists are believed to have been killed since 2006.”The ethical tourism lobbying campaign comes as the leading global event for the travel industry, World Travel Market, highlighted Sri Lanka as one of a few possible emerging tourism ‘powerhouses’ .
“At the end of the war 300000 civilians were illegally detained in inhumane conditions likened to concentration camps. According to a United Nations panel “The Government subjected victims and survivors of the conflict to further deprivation.. some of who were separated were summarily executed and some of the women may have been raped..”
“In the rush to smooth the way for tourism, the government started to bulldoze various Tamil Tiger landmark sites, including cemeteries and the homes of Velupillai Prabhakaran and other LTTE leaders."
“The presence of troops in the north and east, once Tamil dominated regions has increased with the military monitoring civilians and controlling many aspects of their lives. Non Sinhala communities are treated with distrust. Many of those released from camps have not been allowed to return some because land remains under military control.”