ASEAN tourism ministers have agreed to fully tap markets within the bloc and called on the private sector to engage in tourism development to help the sector overcome the consequences of the global economic and financial crisis.

At their 12^th meeting in Hanoi on January 8, the ministers assigned ASEAN tourism officials to work closely with the private sector to develop competitive package tours for travellers within the bloc and its key markets such as China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

They reaffirmed their commitment to speeding up the regional integration process in 2009 and adopted an initiative aimed at drawing up an ASEAN tourism strategy for the 2011-2015 period introduced by heads of national tourism organisations (NTOs) from ASEAN countries.

They appreciated the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for granting its technical assistance to the ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project to increase the competitive capacity of the tourism sector in the integration process.

The ministers welcomed the effective cooperation between the tourism and transport sectors in facilitating cross-border travel by bus and a project to install common ASEAN tourism signposts.

They adopted the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) on tourism to improve the quality of human resources and create favourable conditions for the shifting of employees within the sector.

In 2008, ASEAN received more than 54 million foreign arrivals in 2008, an increase of 7 percent from a year earlier. ASEAN tourism ministers described the growth as an encouraging result, given the negative impact of the global financial crisis and political instability in several member countries.

ASEAN countries expanded cooperation with potential markets by organising an ASEAN-India seminar on Buddhist pilgrimage tourism in Myanmar in August 2008 and the 3^rd ASEAN Tourism Investment Forum in the Philippines in July 2008. They plan to establish the ASEAN-Republic of Korea in Seoul early this year.

The 12^th ASEAN Ministerial Tourism Meeting is part of the ASEAN Tourism Forum ’09, which is taking place in Vietnam.

An ASEAN travel exchange will be held on January 12 with the participation of nearly 600 international travel agents.

Source: VOV