TOURISTS should not travel in ignorance to Third World countries marketed as holiday playgrounds for the well off, a campaigner for responsible tourism said in Dublin yesterday.
In many such countries, peoples had been displaced, natural resources damaged and tourist revenues used to buy weapons, warned Mr Paul Gonsalves, of the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism. The development agency Trocaire invited him to Dublin to speak last night.
"If you are choosing to go on holiday to the Third World, it is your responsibility to find out more than the tourist brochures tell you about the conditions there, and then decide whether you are making the right decision," he said.
The Burmese authorities had designated this year as "Visit Burma Year", he said. Every tourist must change $300 at the border "and that money is going into the hands of the military government to buy guns to kill their own people. Do you want your money to be used in this way?"
In Thailand, there were the issues of sex tourism and prostitution, but golf tourism and over development also damaged the quality of life. "Two hundred new golf courses have involved the conversion of agricultural land and the displacement of peoples who have lived there for generations.
"For rapid development of the greens they use chemicals and fertilisers to grow non indigenous grasses that would not be supported by local soil.
"In Africa, we have an entire continent being turned into a cultural playground. Outsiders see Africa as being either full of bloodshed and tribal warfare, or wildlife and colourful people."
He was not telling people which countries to go to and which to avoid. "But I am asking people to evaluate their decisions . . . These places are not playgrounds."
Mr Eoin Ryan TD, who is sponsoring a Bill to make those availing of sex holidays abroad liable for prosecution in Ireland, said last night that the environment in many Third World holiday destinations was being destroyed by hotel developments.