Voyages Jules Verne Announces Relaunch of Burma Tours

LONDON, April 28, 2011 - Voyages Jules Verne (VJV) has announced the relaunch of its tours to
Burma (also known as Myanmar), following the reopening of tourism to the
country. The move has been endorsed by the Free Burma movement.

Burma was the winner of the Wanderlust Travel Award 2011 for Best
Emerging Destination. This award recognises countries that were visited by
relatively small numbers of Wanderlust readers during the last year, but
which gained very high marks from those who did go. Burma holidays
(www.vjv.com/destinations/far-east/burma/) emerged at the top of the
pile and is a country that, in the past six months, has gone from being the
world's most controversial travel destination to, potentially, its most
exciting.

Voyages Jules Verne is pleased to be able to offer again comprehensive
14-night tours to Burma, including the remote cities of Mandalay and Pagan
(Bagan) on the banks of the Irrawaddy, and Rangoon (Yangon). Travellers
looking to enjoy Far East holidays (www.vjv.com/destinations/far-east/
) can take in the breathtaking sights that Burma has to offer including the
amazing Pagodas of Pagan (
www.vjv.com/destinations/far-east/burma/the-pagodas-pagan/). Those
taking part in the tour of Burma with VJV will get to enjoy a private
candle-lit dinner at an exclusively reserved pagoda in Pagan.

David F. Pattison, Head of Product and Marketing at VJV said: "We were
delighted to hear that Aung San Suu Kyi had recently given her blessing to
the return of tourism to Burma but we still considered our position carefully
before deciding to return to the country. There will always be differing
views about Burma but it is now felt that the controlled entry of visitors
will now help create and sustain jobs for locals and boost the private
economy. With communication and information previously restricted, Burma is
now more exposed to the outside world and opens up the possibility of two-way
exchanges between foreign visitors and the ordinary Burmese people."

It was 15 years ago that Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD) and
its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, first called for a tourism boycott as a way of
denying foreign currency and moral legitimacy to the country's military
dictatorship. That 1996 declaration - vigorously upheld by pressure groups
worldwide, including British organisations Tourism Concern and Burma Campaign
UK - meant that any visit to the country was fraught with ethical complexity.

Following the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in November
2010, the NLD announced that they were no longer opposed to all tourism, but
only to large-scale package tourism.

Senior NLD leader U Win Tin said: "We want people to come to Burma, not
to help the junta, but to help the people by understanding the situation:
political, economic, moral - everything. But to have a very big cruise ship
with hundreds of tourists coming in - that's a lot of money for the regime,
and so we don't like such big business."

The first VJV tour departs November 2011.

About Voyages Jules Verne:

Voyages Jules Verne was founded in 1978 and its range of product
encompasses longhaul and shorthaul, weekends and expeditions, the
conventional and the unexpected, a variety of themes and special interests -
all underpinned by quality and value for money. VJV offers tours to a number
of exotic worldwide destinations including India holidays (
www.vjv.com/destinations/indian-subcontinent/india-tours/), Costa
Rica, China holidays (www.vjv.com/destinations/far-east/china-tours/)
and a variety of European cities.

The tradition of innovation and creativity is still alive today and
evidenced, amongst others, by a unique direct charter operation to Aqaba,
stays at a convent in Rome, exclusive use of royal steamers for Nile River
cruises, and a series of special events exclusively arranged for VJV clients.

    PR Contact:

    Prini Patel
    Marketing Manager
    Voyages Jules Verne
    21 Dorset Square
    London
    +44(0)207-616-1094

www.vjv.com

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