ASEAN drives for sustainable tourism development

The 37th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF 2018) came to a close on January 26, 2018 in Chiangmai, Thailand, with a joint reiteration from the 10 ASEAN nations to step up concerted efforts in sustainable tourism development as ASEAN invited five dialogue partners to invest infrastructure for boundless opportunity in tourism.

In line with its development plan, the ASEAN sustainable tourism award was given for the first time to the outstanding urban and rural establishments in addition to the annual presentation of ASEAN Green Hotel Standard, ASEAN MICE Venue Standard, ASEAN Clean Tourist City Standard, and ASEAN Sustainable Award. There are 134 recipients this year.

ASEAN has seen remarkable progress in its ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan (2016-2025) with strong regional collaboration to make ASEAN a united, single destination through ASEAN Tourism Marketing Strategy (ATMS 2017-2020).

According to World Travel & Tourism Council, tourism contributes more than 12 percent of ASEAN’s total GDP. That nearly 4 percent above most regions in the world. And by 2026, the number of people employed in the industry will increase to over 80 million.

The Ministerial meetings had adopted the declaration in four important areas namely Cruise Tourism, Gastronomy Tourism, Tourism Investment and Tourism for All focusing on the development of tourism infrastructure with connectivity in rail, land and aviation to make ASEAN a united, single destination. They also agreed on the issues of joint marketing strategies, ASEAN tourism personnel development and standardisation to facilitate expertise sharing with the region.

Next year, Viet Nam will be the host of ATF 2019 in Ha Long, Quang Ninh.

*Thanh Tam