ASEAN designs tourism boosters

ASEAN designs tourism boosters

Eileen Ng, Agence France-Presse, Langkawi, Malaysia

Southeast Asian tourism ministers gather on Monday on the
Malaysian resort island of Langkawi to assess the impact of the
Asian tsunami on their economies and seek ways to revitalize the
industry.

Ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) will also hold talks with their counterparts from
China, Japan, South Korea and India on Tuesday on consolidating
travel and tourism as part of a wider economic integration.

A series of meetings will be held on the sidelines by the
region's tourism organizations, airline companies, travel agents
and hoteliers hoping to reassure long-haul travellers that the
tsunami was an isolated event and that it is safe to return to
the region.

A number of tourism bargains will be on offer at a tourism
forum and travel mart, expected to draw some 1,700
representatives from 55 countries.

Malaysian Tourism Minister Leo Michael Toyad has said the
summit would focus on post-tsunami efforts and on charting new
directions to jointly accelerate growth and development of the
region's travel industry.

While there had been an indication of a rebound in tourist
arrivals to the region after the Dec. 26 earthquake and giant
waves killed nearly 220,000 people, he said more must be done to
boost travel sentiment.

Tourism is a major revenue-earner for ASEAN members,
generating US$27.7 billion in 2002 -- excluding Brunei -- or 4.8
percent of ASEAN's gross domestic product.

The ASEAN Tourism Association has projected tourist arrivals
to surge to 56 million in 2006, up from nearly 50 million
expected this year.

The region's travel sector has in recent years weathered the
fallout from international terrorism, the deadly SARS virus and
the bird flu health scare, and the industry is confident of a
quick rebound from last month's calamity.

Reconstruction work has already begun in Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia and Myanmar.

While it is still too early the gauge the full impact of the
devastation, the Bangkok-based Pacific Asia Travel Association
(PATA) said it was likely extensive in Indonesia and Thailand
while Malaysia had quickly recovered and little impact was seen
in Myanmar.

Among ASEAN countries, nearly 170,000 people died in
Indonesia, more than 5,300 in Thailand -- half of them Western
holidaymakers -- 68 in Malaysia and 59 in Myanmar.

ASEAN members have mounted individual marketing campaigns
abroad to sell their tourism products but joint efforts could be
more beneficial, PATA said.

"There will be a rebound obviously but it is important for
ASEAN to present a unified front and coordinate measures
including an early warning system to prevent this from happening
again," said PATA's strategic intelligence director John
Koldowski.

Travel agents said the number of cancellations had generally
declined and leisure travellers were choosing other destinations
in the region unaffected by the crisis. But there had been a
shift away by long-haul travellers from Southeast Asia to Canada,
Australia and Europe.

The World Tourism Organization last week said the tsunami was
expected to have a limited impact on world tourism and predicted
that the industry would recover more quickly than expected.