Regional workshop cements Southeast Asian tourism alliance

The workshop was attended by high-ranking public-sector government officials as well as representatives of the tourism industry private sector from all the member countries of the alliance.

In a keynote address, Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Savankhone Razmountry said the public and private sector joint workshop was being held for the first time to exchange opinions on pressing issues confronting the tourism segment.

The members of the alliance, he noted, have immense potential for tourism development due to their abundance of unique cultural attractions, rich natural beauty and relatively developed tourist infrastructure.

In 2016, the Deputy Minister said visitors from other alliance member countries visiting Laos reached over three million, including two million from Thailand, 900,000 from Vietnam, 16,000 from Cambodia, and over 3,000 from Myanmar.

Meanwhile, the corresponding visitors for Vietnam reached a total of 618,937 including 266,894 from Thailand, 211,949 from Cambodia, 147,004 from Laos and less than 3,000 from Myanmar, which were roughly double the figures for 2015.

The tremendous increase in number of visitors to Laos and Vietnam evidenced the potential of cooperation between the public and private sectors to drive the growth of tourism in the entire Southeast Asian region.

The Deputy Minister said to maximize the potential it was imperative to have stronger public-private partnerships in place so that tourism can be developed in a systematic and well-coordinated fashion.

With near unanimity, all the representatives in attendance at the 2-day workshop agreed that the Public Private Partnership was a good model for tourism promotion and development.

It helps boost community development, generate stable jobs and higher earnings for communities, reduces poverty, promotes sustainable tourism development with well-preserved cultural identity and heritage and raises the socio-economic status for the community, they agreed.

Speakers also noted that international tourist arrivals to the five member alliance countries had nearly tripled over the past decade from 18 million visitors in 2005 to just over 50 million arrivals in 2016. Annual tourism revenue exceeded US$60 billion for the five countries combined.

Previously, in July 2016, an alliance ministerial meeting was held under the theme – Four Countries One Destination – in Myanmar, stressing the importance of further strengthening cooperation among member countries to develop joint tourism products, facilitate travel and enhance capacity building.

At that meeting it was agreed that promoting public, private and community cooperation is one of the priorities of the alliance as well as the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy.

The latter is a political, economic, and cultural organization among Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar aimed at establishing an overall joint economic cooperation strategy for the Southeast Asian region.