Kuoni, the travel group, has become the latest to drop its connections with Burma after protests from British human rights campaigners. The move to target Kuoni, disclosed in The Guardian last September, follows the apparent success of the Burma Campaign in forcing a retreat by Premier Oil which is selling its interests there.
Sue Biggs, managing director of Kuoni UK, insisted it had dropped Burma from its 2004 travel itinerary because of "recent events in Asia" and low public demand.
The decision caused jubilation at the Burma Campaign which said the travel group had been ignoring its requests to meet until newspaper articles began to appear highlighting its name on a "dirty list".
"We are absolutely delighted that Kuoni are pulling out. Tourism is a vital source of income for the dictatorship in Burma," said Yvette Mahon, director of the Burma Campaign in the UK. Burma has been under verbal assault since the house arrest of pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.
There are no sanctions against Burma - renamed Myanmar by the junta - but relatively little trade with it since the UK government has advised companies not to invest. British American Tobacco faced aggressive shareholder questions at its AGM abouta joint venture in Burma.
The Burma Campaign is now targeting the Orient Express group and accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
