Although official figures must be treated with caution, they do provide a guide to the scale of activity and those contained in Table 1 indicate an irregular pattern of visitor arrivals. There was erratic growth in the 1970s and 1980s from very modest beginnings, followed by a dramatic fall after the 1988 disturbances. Recovery occurred in the 1990s, boosted by government initiatives outlined in the next section,andAung Sang Suu Kyi’s release from a six-year period of house arrest. Visit Myanmar Year in 1996 did see a substantial rise over the previous year, whilst failing to reach its target of 500,000 visitors, with limited growth thereafter. Tourism then entered a slump at the end of the 20th century, partly due to the economic recession in majorregional markets.Asia accountedfor over 60% of visitors in 1999, dominated by Taiwan and Japan, and Western Europe contributed 26% of arrivals (Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, 2002). Asian travel is mainly business related andthatfrom Europe is leisure oriented (Bailey, 1998). The recent fortunes of Myanmar’s tourism are therefore tied to various manifestations of its politics with tourism responding to particular incidents and