ASEAN tourism meeting agrees on visa exemption

March 11, 2009 - PRLog -- The agreement was reached at The Eighth Meeting of Tourism Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and South Korea in Langkawi, Malaysia, on Tuesday Jan. 25, a month after the earthquake and Tsunami disaster befell the Indian Ocean rim countries.

The ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Visa exepmtion for ASEAN memebers is reported by the Vietnam News Agency as to be applicable by the end of this year. No furhter details is yet known.

The ASEAN officials pledged to make ASEAN a regional tourism link and create a regional tourism development strategy, aimed at strengthening regional links, raising the quality of tourism products and services, and harmonizing common interests of regional tourism and the interests of each ASEAN member country.

Tourism remains one of the biggest money generators for South-east Asian countries, with the industry worth nearly US$30bil (S$50bil) a year to the region.

Fair, responsible advisories

In a press communiqu� released after the meeting, they tourism ministers called on governments in the world to be �fair and responsible� in issuing travel advisories for their citizens about traveling to ASEAN member countries.

The ASEAN countries also urged the media to ensure balanced and accurate reporting, stressing that the catastrophe had affected only a small part of ASEAN.

"Our message is clear, that travel to ASEAN countries remains safe," stressed Malaysian Minister of Tourism Leo Michael Toyad.

�Any travel advisory issued should be specific. It should not include the whole of Southeast Asia,� he added.

Support pledges

At the meeting, East Asia's economic giants China and Japan pledged promote tourism to the tsunami-hit countries.

China's Sun Gang, the vice-chairman of China's National Tourism Administration, and Mr Hayao Hora, a vice-minister in Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport, said their countries would organize tours for its officials and travel agents to the tsunami-hit countries.

They would also visit other unaffected parts of the region like Jakarta and Bali, to show them only a small part of the region had been affected.

China had just over three million visitors to the region last year, while Japanese tourists accounted for nearly four million arrivals in the ASEAN countries last year.

�China is a friendly neighbor. China and ASEAN are important tourist markets for each other,� he said.

�We will work together to rebuild confidence.�
Source: http://www.travelvietnam.org
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