ASEAN urged to cut travel costs, harmonize visas to boost tourism

ASEAN urged to cut travel costs, harmonize visas to boost tourism

Eileen Ng, Agence Fance-Presse, Vientiane

Southeast Asian nations must lower the cost of air travel and
establish a one-visa policy if they want to spur intra-regional
travel and bolster tourism, officials say.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
has identified tourism as one of 11 priority sectors to be
liberalized under a plan to create a European Union-style single
market by 2020.

Tourism officials say ASEAN's diversified cultural sites,
culinary spread and low prices are a treasure chest but efforts
to cut travel barriers and promote the region as a single
destination are slacking.

The region's pioneer budget carrier AirAsia urges ASEAN to
adopt a "discriminatory" policy of lowering airport charges for
flights within the region to make it more affordable to travel.

A lack of land linkages in ASEAN has turned air travel into a
key transport mode connecting gleaming cities in Singapore,
Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur to mountainous far-flung nations such as
Laos.

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes said an independent
market survey showed only six percent of Malaysians and around
one percent of Thais and Indonesians traveled by air before the
emergence of low-cost carriers.

ASEAN must cut airport taxes, and other fees for airlines such
as route charges, landing and parking fees, he said.

Premium airlines for instance charge about 1,200 ringgit
(US$316) for a return ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, which
is not much different to the cost of flying to London, he said.

"ASEAN has got to be proactive to bring down air travel costs
so that people will start looking at ASEAN as a destination,"
Fernandes told AFP on the sidelines of an ASEAN business
conference here at the weekend.

Indonesia has experienced a surge in tourism since it
deregulated air travel, he noted.

"I think open skies will eventually come but right now, ASEAN
should look at being positively discriminatory in terms of taxes
and other charges in the region so that airlines can lower their
cost and airfares."

The ASEAN Tourism Association deputy president Elly Hutabarat
said the region had become a "hotspot" for Middle East and
regional travellers, partly due to growing restrictions on entry
into the United States and Europe.

Tourist arrivals in ASEAN are expected to surge to 56 million
in 2006, up from nearly 50 million expected this year, she said
in a paper presented at the conference.

But she cited the region's perceived image as anti-Western, a
lack of promotion as a single destination, the absence of a
harmonized visa procedure and security threats as weaknesses it
must overcome.

"The 10 ASEAN countries should be ready to open themselves and
be at center stage of world tourism... we have to be ready to tap
travellers visiting China, Hong Kong, India and the Middle East,"
she said.

"Although it's going to be a giant step to take, a one-visa
policy is one thing we need to strongly consider to minimize
obstacles for tourists and potential investors coming to this
region."

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

Fernandes urged ASEAN governments to support the growth of
low-cost carriers in the region.

"Please support us in having lower cost facilities so we can
do more routes, points that are not covered by premium airlines.
We don't need aerobridges, we need simple airports," he said.

New budget carriers Valuair and Tiger Airways have started
operations in Singapore, which has proposed to build a low-cost
terminal.

Malaysia is still considering plans to create a low-cost hub
either at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport or the old
Subang terminal favored by AirAsia.

Set up in December 2001, AirAsia now services destinations in
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Macau. It plans to
fly to China by February from its Bangkok hub and buy 80 new
aircraft over the next few years.