Delicate question this: Should the tourism industry be supporting Myanmar while its regime kills and persecutes the Rohingya people because of their religion?

I ask after reading a trade story yesterday headlined 'Myanmar Jubilant as Asia Arrivals Swell' based on government claims that in 2017 Southeast Asian tourist visits to the country increased 109% year on year.

The first issue is the figures themselves.

An article in the New Myanmar Times, 'Why Myanmar’s Tourism Numbers Don’t Add Up', explains how the government has been boosting its tourism figures over the past few years to meet lofty targets.

The gist is that Myanmar a now treats regional day-trippers as tourists when the global standard is that visitors must stay at least one night to be considered a tourist.

This disparity can easily be gleaned in the latest Myanmar government figures by comparing the 13% increase in regional arrivals through Yangon International Airport in 2017, well short of the claimed 109% overall boost.

Exaggerated numbers combined with naive next big thing optimism from developers, created a hotel building boom which has led to dramatic oversupply.

The flawed ‘build it and they will come mentality’ is well covered in a Bloomberg story, 'Myanmar’s Tourism Destination Dreams Fade Amid Empty Hotels'. 

Logic says many of Myanmar’s hotel investors are in the red, a situation that’s unlikely to change with western tourists, their main market, no longer inclined to visit a country involved in what has been called genocide.

Read the full story here.