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.