Asean Gives Tourism A Big Push

Bandar Seri Begawan - Pehin Orang Kaya Setia Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Ahmad bin Hj Jumat, Minister, of Industry and Primary Resources, attended the 11th Asean Tourism Ministers meeting (11th ATM) and Asean tourism ministers meeting with tourism ministers from China, Japan and Korea (ATM + 3) and India (ATM + 1) in conjunction with Asean Tourism Forum 2008 (ATF) in Bangkok from January 20 to 22, 2008. The Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, Paiboon Wattanasiritham, officially opened the meeting. In his welcoming speech he emphasised the importance of developing activities in the tourism sector as the main thrust in realising the Asean Economic Community, a press release from MIPR stated.

During the meeting ministers were pleased with the number of tourists coming to Asean countries, which was estimated at 60 million, which was an increase of eight per cent in arrivals to Asean in 2007.

The ministers pledged their continuous commitment to the Asean Roadmap for tourism integration in strengthening the attractiveness of Asean as a tourist destination. Towards this ministers urged all parties involved in the tourist industry from the government and private sector to cooperate.

A number of tasks are being conducted by the governing bodies at the senior officer level of tourism has shown improvement.

The tasks are to promote Asean (joint promotion), developing human resources in the field of tourism (tourism manpower), and cooperation in communicating during times of crisis (cooperation in crisis communications) and arise in capability to ensure quality (capability development and quality assurance).

In the joint promotional programme, member countries have put in effort to rapidly materialise tourism promotions of Asean in Sydney, Beijing and Seoul through Asean promotional chapter for tourism (APCT).

The ministers have directed senior tourism officers in ASEAN to complete the main elements in Mutual recognition agreement (MRA) for professional tourism in Asean to be signed this December.

Asean ministers also stressed the importance of cooperation among the parties involved and responsible for tourism. Also to achieve this goal, ministers have agreed to the launching of open skies between major cities and air liberalisation for minor cities.

Ministers are aware of the importance of cooperation between countries in the Asean dialogue like China, Japan, Korea and India and welcomed efforts in establishing an Asean Centre that can help raise the tourism potential.

Ministers also welcomed the signing of MoU between Asean and Republic of Korea regarding the establishment of the Asean Centre - Republic of Korea.

Ministers also welcomed the continuous consultation between India, which can also contribute towards increasing the number of tourists.

Brunei Darussalam lauded the development that Asean has achieved, especially by the taskforce at the Asean senior officer level in advancing the Asean tourism industry.

Pehin Dato Dr Awang Haji Ahmad said that cooperation between the government and private sectors in Asean and the Asean dialogue countries in advancing the execution of Asean tourism activities as important towards the success of the Asean tourism industry. He added that Brunei was prepared to host the Asean Tourism Forum in 2010 (ATF 2010).

This year 81 hotels in Asean countries including one from Brunei Darussalam Orchid Garden Hotel received the Asean Green Hotel Award.

Source: www.brudirect.com (25 Januari 2008)
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