How important is tourism in Asean’s development plans?
Asean Tourism has significant potential to become a major socio-economic driver for growth and a tool for development in the Asean region.
In 2012, Asean received over 87 million international visitors, and tourism plays an important role as an instrument for the alleviation of poverty, improvement of people’s quality of life and contributing to economic and social development.
What would you like to see happen to further improve cross-border road transport within Asean?
Asean is developing a framework agreement on cross-border passenger transport. The intention of this is to simply and harmonise transport procedures and requirements.
With the conclusion of the agreement, we would expect much more seamless land travel. Asean is also currently completing missing sections and improving road quality.
How important it is for each Asean country to promote simplified visa procedures to facilitate travel by non-Asean visitors?
Significant progress was made by Thailand and Cambodia when they agreed to implement a single visa agreement. Since December 2012 non-Asean visitors need to obtain just one visa to visit both countries.
The idea of a common visa covering Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam also enjoys broad support.
Asean is working on easing visa requirements for Asean nationals and foreign tourists.
How confident are you that the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for Tourism Professionals will start to deliver results?
The MRA is one of the key Asean tourism initiatives to support the establishment of the AEC by 2015.
The progress that has been achieved is encouraging and the pilot implementation for the hotel housekeeping division should begin by next year.
To ensure the quality of tourism in Asean, what policies and initiatives is Asean implementing?
A set of Asean Tourism Standards for green hotels, spa services, homestays, clean tourist cities and public toilets, all with certification processes, have been developed since 2011. We’re seeking completion and implementation by 2015.
What kind of tourism products does Asean need to develop more?
There is a need to develop tourism products that involve the local community.
Homestay is one of the good examples on how tourism can provide trickle-down effects to the community using experience and daily life as a main attraction.