ASEAN outraged by Western travel advisories

ASEAN outraged by Western travel advisories

Dirk Beveridge, Associated Press, Phnom Penh

A tropical beach with nobody on it may be the stuff of travelers' dreams, but it's a nightmare for many Asian nations after the Bali bombings stirred fears of more terrorist attacks in paradise.

Tourists fled the idyllic Indonesian resort after the blasts killed nearly 200 people last month, and many are avoiding other regional destinations that have seen troubles, including Philippine islands where foreigners were kidnapped and parts of South Asia hit by bloodshed and political tensions.

Wealthy Western nations have responded with travel advisories that have infuriated many Asian countries and businesses that depend on tourism.

They charge the advisories, including one put out Saturday by the U.S. State Department and covering all of Southeast Asia, are scaring people away from safe destinations and setting up the region for even worse losses.

"They issue advisories based on the first information they receive, not on exclusive intelligence, which is causing panic," said Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.

Tourism is a major source of cash and jobs in Southeast Asia, and the industry's crisis will be in focus Monday and Tuesday when leaders of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations hold a summit, along with China, Japan, South Korea, India and South Africa.

The ASEAN nations plan to sign a new deal promoting tourism -- for example by easing visa requirements and boosting air services -- on Monday.

For now, many are just worried about how much business they will lose and how long it will take to bounce back.

"We have huge losses every day," grumbled Roberto S. Jotikasthira, first vice president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents. Dozens of European tour groups have been canceling visits, including some big ones like planned tours by 400 people from Italy and 1,200 from Portugal, he said.

"It's a big snowball effect," said John Koldowski, managing director of strategic intelligence at the Pacific Asia Travel Association. He called it "unfair to brand a whole country or a whole region" with travel advisories that can needlessly frighten tourists.

"Pick any country in the world and I'm sure I can find you a dark alley that will get you into trouble," Koldowski said. Although the association is holding its annual meeting next year in Bali, which it hopes will lend the resort island some support, it had to cancel a sustainable tourism conference in Western Java, Indonesia, just days after the Bali bombings.

"We were all set to proceed with that, but a lot of our speakers, from the U.S., the U.K. and Australia were advised not to go," Koldowski said.

The U.S. travel advisory, similar to warnings issued by nations in Europe as well as Japan and Australia, noted "the potential for terrorist actions against U.S. citizens abroad, specifically in the Southeast Asia region."

Many in the industry are furiously noting that no such sweeping blanket warnings get put out when terrorists have struck elsewhere -- for example when the IRA bombed targets in Britain and Ireland.

"It's a bloody joke," said Luzi A. Matzig, whose Asian Trails travel agency in Bangkok promotes visits to remote areas of Southeast Asia. "You have no travel advisories for Spain, where Basque terrorists stage attacks, but you have them for Laos, Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand, which are among the safest places in the world for tourists."

Industry experts predict travel will recover, and the host of the ASEAN summit, Cambodia, is proof that it can happen. Cambodia is still recovering from years of war and genocide, and cleaning up all its notorious minefields will take decades.