Mekong tourism officials outline future orientation

Hanoi (VNA) - The 2 nd meeting of Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) tourism
ministers on Jan. 9 passed a joint declaration concerning recent progress in
cooperation between the region's tourism authorities and orientation for future
development.

The GMS tourism ministers' meeting took place within the framework of the ASEAN
Tourism Forum (ATF) currently taking place in Hanoi . GMS consists of Cambodia
, China , Laos , Myanmar , Thailand and Vietnam .

The joint declaration said that GMS's tourism sector is continuing to grow and is
standing firm against the fallout from the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, a
new website for tourism promotion activities is to be launched soon, which will
also act as a forum to effectively implement the Mekong tourism promotion
strategy, which was adopted in 2005.

The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) has successfully organised three
recent seminars aimed at accelerating the implementation of preferential projects
under the tourism development plan, and preparing in-depth proposals to present at
the upcoming conference of development partners later this year.

GMS tourism ministers praised the MTCO Executive Director's efforts to speed up
the programme regarding tourism development and marketing and improve coordination
in the implementation of the tourism strategy.

The ministers also made a special note of the assistance received from the French
government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in enhancing the MTCO's financial
and technical capacities, and spoke highly of Thailand's initiative in launching
the Mekong Tourism Year 2009-2010.

Regarding their orientation for the future, the six GMS countries' tourism
ministers affirmed that they would make full use of the sub-region's
infrastructure and improve and expand their coordination to promote the
development of sustainable tourism in a socially responsible manner. The six
nations vowed to continue to pool their resources in order to establish GMS as a
common destination in the context of the global economic recession.

The six ministers requested that the Tourism Working Group and MTCO exploit all
available resources and hoped that the upcoming conference of development partners
later this year would be successful in expanding their mutually-beneficial
partnership.

MGS expects to welcome 53 million foreign visitors by 2015, generating new jobs
for more than 4.2 million workers.-Enditem