ASEAN plans tourism body to boost links

ASEAN plans tourism body to boost links

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The six member countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plan to set up a
new tourism body to link public and private efforts to boost
growth, a senior official said yesterday.

Tourism officials from the ASEAN countries of Brunei,
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, are
now studying the plan and will submit their findings at the next
ASEAN tourism meeting in August, the official told Reuters.

Khoo Hock Aun, deputy executive director of the Kuala Lumpur-
based ASEAN Tourism Information Center (Atic), which is funded by
ASEAN members, said tourism had become a major industry for
countries in the region.

ASEAN's tourism growth rate, at nine percent, far exceeded the
worldwide average of 3.2 percent, he said.

Atic is the existing representative body for ASEAN tourism but
the organization's term expires in March 1996 or when a new body
is set up.

ASEAN countries cooperated collectively on a Visit ASEAN Year
in 1992 which saw each country allocated a budget of US$0.5
million to boost international publicity.

Separately, Malaysia held Visit Malaysia Year in 1990 and 1994
as did Thailand and Indonesia in 1987 and 1991.

According to Atic's figures, ASEAN saw an estimated total of
25.8 million tourist arrivals last year, compared with 23.7
million in 1993.

Based on these estimates, ASEAN tourism arrivals accounted for
4.9 percent of total worldwide arrivals compared with 4.6 percent
in 1993.

In July last year, the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization
(WTO) said international tourist arrivals in East Asia and the
Pacific grew four times faster than the world average in 1993,
reaching a record-breaking 69 million.

The WTO forecast that east Asia and the Pacific will continue
as the fastest-growing tourism region of the world with
international arrivals reaching 101 million by the year 2000.