Free Tibet Campaign - London

August 1, 1997

Free Tibet Campaign has learned that from October 1997 the hotel group Holiday Inn will not be renewing its partnership with the Chinese authorities to operate the only luxury hotel in Tibet.

Holiday Inn gave no reason for their withdrawal, however Free Tibet Campaign believes the decision has been influenced by its international boycott of the hotel group, launched in 1993. The announcement comes only a few months after organisations in the USA joined the boycott of both Holiday Inn and its parent company Bass plc. Protests have been held at Bass plc Annual General Meetings, outside Holiday Inn hotels in the UK and the USA and at international travel industry fairs. Meetings were held with Holiday Inn and Bass officials in London and Atlanta throughout the campaign to discuss concerns.

"This is a great campaign victory for the Tibet movement internationally" said Alison Reynolds, Director of Free Tibet Campaign. "We will continue to do all we can to ensure that the Chinese do not profit financially from their illegal occupation of Tibet, and we congratulate Holiday Inn on their decision."

In a statement from Holiday Inn, Craig Smith, Vice President of Corporate Affairs said "The multi-year contract, under which Holiday Inn Worldwide has managed the Holiday Inn Lhasa, is due to expire this Fall. Holiday Inn will not be renewing this agreement and will cease its management role at the property in October 1997."

Free Tibet Campaign began campaigning against Holiday Inn's presence in Lhasa on the grounds that the partnership supported the Chinese regime responsible for the oppression of the Tibetan people. The venture brought financial benefits to the Chinese occupiers rather than local Tibetans (who are denied ownership) and provided possibly the largest source of foreign income for the Chinese in Tibet. The hotel was key to the policy of only allowing tour groups into Tibet; high spending visitors whose itineraries and contact with Tibetans could be strictly controlled.

Free Tibet Campaign launched the boycott of Holiday Inn and their British parent company Bass plc in 1993. USA groups Milarepa Fund and Students for a Free Tibet joined the campaign on 10th March 1997. The boycott was a major campaign focus for the Tibet Freedom concert, organised this June in New York by Milarepa.

Free Tibet Campaign's objection to the Holiday Inn's presence in Lhasa was not just based on economics. Other examples of our concerns were as follows:

The hotel has been used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese to promote a peaceful view of the political situation in Tibet to the outside world. Located away from the main Tibetan quarter of Lhasa, dignitaries and tour groups were insulated from disturbances and protests against Chinese rule.

Free Tibet Campaign believe that the hotel management co-operated with the Chinese security forces. Top level army officers were billeted there during crackdowns. In 1995, a tourist was detained and deported from Tibet after sending a fax from the hotel business centre which referred to a bomb explosion in Lhasa.

In 1994, staff at the Holiday Inn prevented a westerner from contacting a United Nations human rights delegation staying at the hotel.

Free Tibet Campaign is not opposed either to tourism or to economic development in Tibet, but cannot support western partnerships with the Chinese authorities which endorse the Chinese occupation of Tibet against the will of the Tibetans, and which exclude the Tibetan people from business opportunities.