{"id":2013,"date":"2023-09-03T18:33:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T18:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2023-09-03T18:33:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T18:33:01","slug":"some-travel-companies-still-offer-trips-to-xinjiang-despite-rights-abuses-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=2013","title":{"rendered":"Some Travel Companies Still Offer Trips to Xinjiang Despite Rights Abuses, Report Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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FILE – Tourists pose for photos with a camel outside the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, as seen during a government organized trip for foreign journalists, on April 19, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0<\/span>Despite evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, major international travel companies are continuing to offer tours to the northwestern Chinese region, a new report found.<\/p>\n

Those trips risk bolstering Beijing\u2019s destruction and co-optation of Uyghur culture and reinforcing the propaganda narrative that all is well in the region, according to the report released Wednesday by the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP).<\/p>\n

The report identifies at least seven travel companies that currently offer tours to the region China calls Xinjiang, which the report and many Uyghurs prefer to describe as East Turkistan.<\/p>\n

Despite the well-documented abuses, companies like U.S.-based Abercrombie & Kent, U.K.-based Bamboo Travel and Canada-based Laurus Travel continue to offer trips to historic cities like Kashgar and Urumqi, the region\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Henryk Szadziewski, the report\u2019s author, urges all travel companies to immediately stop offering tours to the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy taking organized tours to the Uyghur Region, you really do run the risk of complicity with the genocide,\u201d Szadziewski told VOA from Hawaii, where he is based.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe optics of turning a profit while organizing tours to a region that has ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide are terrible,\u201d said Szadziewski, who is also the UHRP\u2019s research director.<\/p>\n

Since the report was released, two companies \u2014 Canada-based Goway Travel and Australia-based Intrepid Travel \u2014 have said they would no longer offer tours to Xinjiang, according to the UHRP.<\/p>\n

\n

Since releasing our briefing\u2014which companies have committed to *ending* #GenocideTours<\/a> in the Uyghur region? \ud83e\udd14<\/p>\n

\u2705 @GowayTravel<\/a> (withdrawn)
\u2705 @Intrepid_Travel<\/a> (withdrawn)
\u274c @AKTravel_UK
\u274c @LaurusTravel<\/a>
\u274c @GeoEx<\/a>
\u274c @WildFrontiers<\/a> *
\u274c @BambooTravel<\/a> **https:\/\/t.co\/fVRdS2onBS<\/a><\/p>\n

— Uyghur Human Rights Project (@UyghurProject) August 30, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n