Asean nations to drive for tourism in Singapore event
SOME SOUTHEAST Asian nations plan to launch new tourism campaigns next week at the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) in Singapore. Laos plans to launch “Visit Laos Year 2018”, while Vietnam will announce its new visa policies, including a visa exemption for European tourists.
Myanmar will provide the latest update on its tourism performance, skill-development initiatives, and its new destination marketing promotions for 2017.
According to representatives of ATF 2017, all 10 Asean member states will share updates on their latest destination news, goals, partnerships and service innovations. The host country, Singapore, will show its new marketing strategy to promote its tourism industry to draw more international visitors.
Themed “Shaping Our Tourism Journey Together”, ATF 2017 will support the continuous, collective efforts by Asean members to address the tourism challenges and opportunities in the region as the 10 member states jointly develop and grows the tourism industry in the region.
In celebration of Asean’s 50th anniversary, this year’s edition of ATF will include the official launch of the “Visit Asean@50: Golden Celebration” campaign.
Under the regional campaign, 50 special packages have been selected by Asean’s national tourism organisations for the campaign, which aims to attract 121 million international arrivals to the region this year, up from 109 million in 2015. Awards for community-based tourism will be delivered for the first time to honour outstanding tourism communities’ social, historical and natural assets and their compliance with practical issues such as accommodation, safety and hygiene.
ATC 2017 will be held from Monday to Friday next week. Running alongside it for three days will be Tvavex TRAVEX, an annual Asean leisure-travel trade event, on Tuesday at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The event’s theme is “Riding the Digital Wave: The Fourth Revolution” and will offer attendees insights into changing travel patterns and their impact on businesses.
Meanwhile, Nitinai Sirismatthakarn , president of Airports of Thailand, operator of six international airports in Thailand, yesterday signed an extended agreement with Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to promote travel and tourism.
