To Travel or Not to Travel? That is the Question

Do tourists help or hinder reforms in dictatorial states or impact on human rights abuses?

The Society of American Travel Writers' 2009 convention is scheduled for Beijing, setting off a debate on whether SATW's presence is de facto support of a regime whose human rights abuses in general and policies toward Tibet in particular many members find abhorrent. For a specific take on China, a recent essay in Newsweek's international edition called "Tibet Through Chinese Eyes" merits reading. Not only SATW, but many travelers in general, often wrestle with these questions when a place they want to see, like China, conflicts with their principles.

Susan Hack wrote a Concierge.com piece called "Should You Stay or Should You Go?" weighing the pros and cons of such travel. She wrote:

"Picture this: You excitedly tell your friends you're heading to China for
the Olympics, and they start lecturing you about Darfur, human rights, and the Dalai Lama.

"'But what about Shanghai, and the terra cotta warriors, and all those cool
new stadiums?' Stony silence. There goes your summer vacation.

"To some people, boycotting the Games — and China as a whole — is a way of protesting its government's policies.

"But does that mean those who visit condone repression — and even help
underwrite it? Must travelers body-swerve countries with flagrant human-rights
abuses altogether?"

For my part, I say: Go! Whatever reforms occurred behind what was once called the Bamboo Curtain happened after Nixon "opened" China, trade and talks started, and American and other Western tourists began to visit. Countries that were once locked behind the Iron Curtain are now not only on the tourist trail ("Gladys, I can't wait to see the Kremlin!"), and former Soviet satellites are booming, some now as part of the economically powerful euro zone. Americans visit Vietnam, where some 55,000 US servicemen perished in a previous undeclared war. While China and Viernam are still Communist, so is Cuba, where a decades-long embargo on American travel certainly did not to close the long-running Fidel Castro show. Only age and infirmity caused him to hand power over to his brother Raul, and perhaps normalization won't be too far off, and American visitors will easily be able to join Canadians, Eruopeans and Mexicans who travel without difficulty to the nation that lies just 90 miles from Key West.

Hack tackled the questions of visiting a baker's dozen places where all is not roses and lollipops: China, Syria, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Tunisia, Myanmar (Burma), Israel and the Occupied Territories, Russia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iran, Venezuela. Some are currently such hotspots that only for the likes of Robert Young Pelton, author of travel books about "the world's most dangerous places" and whose website is called Come Back Alive. Others don't really want outsiders at all. Consider Myanmar, which is shutting out most relief workers who want to help the country's cyclone victims. Others only reluctantly let in any outsiders. In a recent CNN special, Christiane Amanpour reported on the New York Philharmonic to Pyongyang's (hopefully) ice-breaking concert last February. It was the first-ever performance by an American orchestra in the secretive People's Republic of Korea.

I haven't been to any hot war zones, nor do I have desire to do so, but years ago, I did visit East Berlin in the days of Checkpoint Charlie and spent time in Budapest when the Soviet shadow covered eastern Europe. I once crossed the former Czechoslovakia by train and had to get a visa in advance, even though I was not getting off the train, which surprised me, because in western Europe, it was easy to travel from country to country. And yes, I have been to China. Three times. And I want to go again.

Perhaps I am being naive, but in my opinion, travelers with open minds, open eyes and yes, open wallets are, on balance, a good thing. And I do wonder what happens when the proverbial shoe is on the other foot. For many visitors from overseas, the US is currently a travel bargain. Yet we photograph and fingerprint our foreign "guests" at our airports like suspects taken to jail. I wonder how many foreign visitors don't want to come here and be treated like crooks -- or who don't want to spend their money in a country responsible for Gantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition or state-sanctioned torture to interrogate prisoners in our undeclared and ongoing "war on terrorism."

So read Susan Hack's piece and decide for yourself what's on your to-visit list and what isn't. For now.