Tourism growth in Asia

Tourism growth in Asia

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): China will spearhead Asia's huge tourism growth over the next six years, followed by India and Indonesia, a senior official of Visa International said yesterday.

"Asia's meteoric economic growth and rising affluence will make it the fastest growing travel market in the 1990s and the growth will come from within the region with China as the next major travel generating country," said Francis Hsu, Visa's travel marketing director of the Asia Pacific.

Asia's travel industry up to the year 2000 would be under- pinned by intra-regional growth, Hsu said in a statement, released in conjunction with Visa's recent annual "Travel Think Tank" held in Kuala Lumpur.

The annual gathering of travel experts, which was initiated in 1992 in Hong Kong, is scheduled to be held in Bangkok next year.

The Visa statement said the recent gathering highlighted the need for better coordination between national tourism organizations and other industry components to woo more tourists to the region.

There should also be greater coordination in promotions among airlines, hotel and travel agents to successfully market a destination, it said.