Mr Sundram Puspanathan
JAKARTA: More promotions and facilities are needed to enhance Asean tourism sector as the bloc is eager to further develop intra Asean tourism and to attract more foreign tourists, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. The bloc should accelerate the implementation of free visa policy for all Asean residents, in which it only waits for approval from Cambodia and Myanmar, but currently implemented bilaterally between eight other Asean member states.
Meanwhile, Asean had a lot of opportunities to widen its tourism market, not only from its traditional market, but also from within Asean itself and growing East Asia.
As Asean deputy secretary general Sundram Puspanathan told Xinhua recently, the region should focus on how to make more foreign tourists to come, and the leaders of Asean members were working to make free policy visa for them. “For Asean tourists, we have a three weeks-visa exemption that has been implemented two, three years ago. Now we have to look at outside Asean,” he said.
On January 12, Indonesia’s Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu formally introduced Asean as the single tourist destination during the region’s tourism forum in Manado of North Sulawesi province. “The campaign was launched in Indonesia and would be fully implemented after problems involving common visas to non Asean residents are settled,” she said.
According to Puspanathan, 43 per cent of all international arrivals coming to Asean were from within the region in 2011, out of total 79 million visitors. “Intra Asean tourism is very good, especially when Europe and the US are in crisis,” he said. Besides, he said, Asean should also eye tourist from East Asia like China, Japan and South Korea as well as from India.
The middle class in the emerging countries was identified as a good potential market for Asean’s tourism sector. Based on the United Nation World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) data, China’s middle class grew by 50 per cent while Russia’s and Brazil’s middle class rose by 21 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively. UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai said that tourist arrivals in the region were up nine per cent in 2011, more than twice the global rate of 4.4 per cent.
Puspanathan said that tourism sector had multiplier effects as tourist would not only spend money for accommodation, but also for purchasing things in shops, buying foods and others. However, he said, Asean needed to strength the regional attractions. “But, somewhat we only promote few on them,” he said.
He took an example that there were many destinations in Indonesia apart from Bali. “Everybody coming to Indonesia talks about Bali, whereas the country has many beautiful places like Manado (of North Sulawesi province), Makassar (of South Sulawesi province) and Surabaya (of East Java province), among others. I think we have to market other destinations than Bali,” he said. — Bernama
Source The Borneo Post