In typically uncompromising tone, the junta - the latest face of 46 years of unbroken military rule - blames the decline on the foreign media and dissidents who smuggled out pictures and reports of atrocities on the Internet.
"Some foreigners attempted to tarnish the image of Myanmar by posting in the Web sites the photos of the protest walks," Deputy Tourism Minister Aye Myint Kyu, a brigadier-general, wrote in state-run papers in January under a widely known pseudonym.
However, in one sense he is right: coverage of the crisis put the oft-forgotten southeast Asian nation firmly in the world spotlight and bolstered the cries of many anti-government organizations telling potential visitors to stay away.
Under the slogan "The cost of a holiday could be someone's life", groups such as the Burma Campaign UK argue that every tourist dollar props up a regime that uses forced labour, child soldiers and systematic rape of ethnic minority women - allegations the junta denies.
Boycott campaigners also say that the jobs of people working in tourism are an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of the wider effort to overthrow the generals.
"The tourism industry in Burma is tiny. The vast majority of people will never see a tourist in their life," said Anna Roberts of the Burma Campaign UK.
SHOULD I STAY, SHOULD I GO?
Even though the call for a boycott came from detained Nobel peace laureate and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, it is not without its critics.
In particular, detractors argue it is an empty gesture since the cash gleaned directly and indirectly from tourism is a tiny fraction of that from gems and natural gas, which made the generals more than $2 billion in sales to Thailand alone in 2007.
They also say it pushes them further into the isolation on which they appear to thrive.
"The boycott is totally pointless," said Ton Schoonderwoerd, an independent Dutch tourist watching the sun rise above Bagan's temples, the product of 230 years of building by Buddhist kings that came to an abrupt end with a Mongol invasion in 1287.
"It may seem good to politicians in the U.S. and Europe, but out here it just means that people struggle even more to make ends meet," he said.
Rather than coming down on either side of what is a passionate debate, backpacker bible Lonely Planet chooses simply to outline the pros and cons of visiting, and urges those who do to avoid government-run hotels and airlines.
