Asian tourism to boom as attacks quickly forgotten

Asian tourism to boom as attacks quickly forgotten

Karl Malakunas , Agence-France Presse, Singapore

Southeast Asia's tourism sector is set to surge by seven to
eight percent over the next 12 months with the recent terrorism
attacks to have only a short-term impact, an industry chief said
here on Sunday.

Thomas Cook travel agency chairman Stefan Pichler said events
such as the bombings that killed 202 people on the Indonesian
holiday island of Bali exactly one year ago would not deter
tourists for long.

"We have unfortunately over the past years had terrorist
attacks in other parts of the world, (such as) Egypt and
Tunisia," Pichler told a press conference at the beginning of the
12th annual summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) here.

"The experience of those events shows that people tend to
forget (the terrorist attacks) very fast.

"So there's no lasting impact on the demand from what has
happened over the last two years."

Pichler said travel and tourism in the region had already
started to pick up after the Bali attack and the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome epidemic that divested the region in the
first half of the year, and would continue to do so.

"The industry is bouncing back strongly and will reach growth
of seven to eight percent over the next year," Pichler, who is
one of the four co-chairs of the WEF East Asia summit, said.

He said the travel and tourism industry in Southeast Asia was
expected to generate US$120 billion of economic activity in 2003.

He said this created 6.6 million jobs directly linked to the
tourism industry, and another 18 million in indirect jobs.

"The tourism industry is probably the most important in Asia,"
Pichler said, adding the 18 million indirect jobs equaled 7.6
percent of total employment in Southeast Asia.

He described it as the "driving force" behind economic growth
in the region, but outlined a series of reforms that needed to be
implemented to further optimize the industry's potential.

"We need liberalization, we need to open up markets in our
businesses," he said, citing greater intra-regional co-operation
in the airline, hotel and tour package industries as examples.

Pichler also said infrastructure had to be developed.

"Rail has to work with the roads, with the airports and the
airlines," he said.

Philippines Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon described tourism
as a "sunrise industry" while also predicting growth despite
security and health concerns in the region.

He said that although Asia might see fewer tourists from
Europe and the United States, intra-Asian tourism was on the rise
and would fuel the regional industry.

"I look at Asia as a growth area. China is predicted to
generate 120 million tourists in the next 20 years," he said,
adding that tourism numbers from from India, Japan and South
Korea would also grow strongly.

Japan's financial services minister, Heizo Takenaka,
emphasized the intra-Asian travel theme, saying his country was
looking at attracting many more tourists from Asia.

"We have great potential in this tourism industry," Takenaka
said, highlighting that 17 million Japanese went overseas for
holidays last year while just four million foreign tourists came
to Japan.