Mekong states should adopt regional strategy
Mekong states should adopt regional strategy
Agence France-Presse, Hanoi
The countries of the Mekong subregion should adopt a regional approach to boost the local tourism industry, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) officials said here on Sunday following a regional forum.
"It is an unnatural thing for national administrations to work together. But these countries come to realize that it is clever to have a regional approach," said Les Clark, consultant for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Eighth Mekong Tourism Forum gathered the six countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which oversees development projects involving Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Chinese province of Yunnan.
Years ago "the six countries were not communicating with each other. Over time, every one has been increasingly more comfortable", Clark said.
The forum was organized as the industry struggles to resist the fallout from the Iraq war and the outbreak of a deadly pneumonia .
"What we have advised is communication with consumers, travel industry and media to have a clear indication of what the situation is," Peter Semone, PATA's vice-president said during a press briefing.
"All destinations have to be reasonably conservative," he said, stressing that the organization had followed World Health Organization (WHO) screening and monitoring guidelines.
In 2002, GMS countries received more than 16.2 million visitors, up 8.6 percent on 2001, professionals said.
Specialists believe the industry will benefit from customers increasingly interested in two or three-country vacations, with sites like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Sukkhotai in Thailand and Luang Prabang in Laos becoming complementary rather than competitive destinations.
"Our remaining task is how to wake up such potentials and turn them into a momentum boosting tourism growth and bringing a better life for all people living in the area," Vietnam's deputy- prime minister Vu Khoan said in his welcome address on Saturday.
Mana Chobtham, director of the Agency for coordinating Mekong tourism activities (AMTA) warned the GMS countries would face considerable competition in the years ahead.
"We expect there will be a major rush for the Indian and Chinese markets, now seen as the most promising growth markets of the future."