APEC ministers seek ways to develop tourism

Delegates to the 4th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting closing here Tuesday put forth measures to foster the region's travel industry, including those on promoting sustainable tourism development, facilitating visitors' travel, and sharing information among member economies.

Ministers responsible for tourism from the 21-member Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), in the Hoi An Declaration on Promoting APEC Tourism Cooperation adopted Tuesday, said they encouraged the smart public-private partnerships, especially in the fields of infrastructure development, human resource development, the improvement of quality tourism products and services, the tourism promotion, and the tourism resource protection.

Regarding the facilitating tourists' travel, the ministers said the member economies should study the possibility for tour packages and new direct air linkages among cultural heritage sites and major tourism destinations, aiming to promote tourist flows into and within the region.

They said the APEC Tourism Working Group should identify impediments to tourism growth, and map out policies to improve a positive business climate.

The ministers stressed the importance of holding tourism fairs back-to-back with important APEC events and investment fairs on the sidelines of APEC tourism ministerial meetings, sharing information among the member economies' tourism agencies, and organizing joint activities for youth exchanges and twin cities' cooperation to make better marketing the region's travel industry.

The ministers also reaffirmed the application of the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) as an important and efficient tool in measuring the contribution of tourism to economic growth, and encouraged APEC member economies to soon adopt the TSA approach for the harmonization of common tourism benchmarking in the region.

They recognized the Seoul Declaration on the APEC Tourism Charter adopted at the first meeting in South Korea in 2000 as a solid foundation and an important orientation for future tourism cooperation in the region. The charter targets removing impediments to tourism business and investment, increasing mobility of visitors and demand for tourism goods and services, managing sustainable tourism outcomes and impacts, and enhancing recognition and understanding of tourism as a means of socioeconomic development.

In 2005, APEC region welcomed 237 million visitors, or 30 percent of the total arrivals in the world, and reaped tourism revenues of 231 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 34 percent of the global tourism earnings, Head of the Vietnam Administration of Tourism Vo Thi Thang said at the meeting.

The APEC is forecast to post annual tourism growth of 8-10 percent next decade, she added.

APEC, established in 1989 for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region, accounts for more than one-third of the world's population, nearly 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product, and about 47 percent of the world trade.

Source: Xinhua