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."