ASEAN plans tourism campaign

ASEAN plans tourism campaign

BANGKOK (AP): The 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations announced Sunday that they have agreed to stage a joint tourism campaign next year.

The campaign will aim at painting the ASEAN region as a single tourism destination, said a press statement issued at a meeting of the group's tourism ministers.

The joint campaign will be officially launched in Brunei in the year 2001, the statement said. Meanwhile, all the countries will work together to figure out concrete marketing measures.

"This is a great region of 10 countries which have varied kinds of things from food to exotic people. We have to work together to help each other, to make countries in this area compete less with each other and increase cooperation," said Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman Taib, Brunei's minister of industry and primary resources.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Tourism is a major revenue earner for the more-developed countries among the group, such as Thailand and Singapore.