THE formal establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on December 31, 2015 marked a major milestone in the region, but several issues still need to be tackled for sustained growth for the 10 member states in the pursuit of a single market strategy in the decade ahead.
The ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan (ATSP) 2016-2025 will be implemented as a continuation of the tourism road which started in 2011.
Assessing the performance of the ATSP 2011-2015, Benito C Bengzon, undersecretary for the Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DoT), who was chairing the meeting, revealed 79 out of 87 measures have been satisfied so far in the previous plan.
Outstanding measures that need further work under the new ATSP include working with global bodies such as UNESCO and Asian Development Bank for heritage tourism and community-based tourism respectively; the regional development of products for health and wellness tourism; monitoring and evaluating tourism activities related to climate change; developing a future work plan based on monitoring input; as well as developing and implementing a training tool box for travel agencies and tour operation.
Welcoming the progress achieved in the previous ATSP, Tint Thwin, director general of Myanmar’s Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, said: “It will take time to see results (of the ATSP 2011-2015) because different countries are at different stages of development in terms of service quality, capacity building and infrastructure development.
“I believe for ATSP 2016-2025, human resources development is the most important because tourism is a service industry. Training is important to ensure that all member countries are on the same level playing field.”
Eddy Krismeidi Soemawilaga, senior officer at ASEAN Secretariat, told TTG Asia e-Daily that detailed plans for every two years of ATSP 2016-2025 will be drawn up and discussed during the ministerial meetings on January 21 and 22.
Lawrence Leong, Singapore Tourism Board’s assistant chief executive, said: “With ATSP, we want to promote ASEAN as a single destination. ASEAN countries have been stepping up on their marketing over the last few years, and we see a lot more packages promoting ASEAN as a region. We aim for longer stays for these travellers, to have them spend at least six to seven days in the whole region.”
Meanwhile, I Gde Pitana, deputy minister for international tourism marketing development, Indonesia Ministry of Tourism, sees room for further quality improvement, especially in the competency of human resources.
Pitana also urged the trade to create multi-destination packages for travellers outside the region. “We can start with bilateral cooperation, like Thailand and Cambodia, or Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, and go on from there,” he said.
However, an ASEAN common visa remains a pipe dream. Said Tint Thwin: “To promote ASEAN as a single destination is to show the ASEAN spirit. The lack of a single visa is an obstacle.”
Read more ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2016 stories in the digital edition of our Show Dailies here.
