Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Huynh Vinh Ai (centre) speaks at the event (Photo: VNA)Quang Ninh (VNA) - Member economies of the Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) Forum adopted a statement on sustainable tourismdevelopment during the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Tourismheld in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh on June 19.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Huynh Vinh Aitold reporters that the statement has a significant meaning and delivers amessage of strongly supporting principles and actions to promote sustainabletourism. Under the statement, APEC member economies acknowledged sustainabletourism development is a continuous process that requires constant impactmonitoring.
They agreed to foster regional and domestic tourism policiesthat support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) andencourage viable, long-term economic contributions of travel and tourism inproviding socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders.
The APEC members suggested respecting socio-culturalauthenticity of host communities, conserving their built and living culturalheritage and traditional values, and contributing to inter-cultural understandingand tolerance.
It is also recommended making optimal use of environmentalresources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintainingessential ecological processes, conserving natural features and resources andbiodiversity, and creating competitive and enabling environments for alltourism-related enterprises, and particularly micro-, small- and medium-sizedenterprises.
The bloc proposed conducting further studies to enable APEC membereconomies to apply new advanced technologies for smart, sustainable and inclusivetourism development, especially in tourism human resource development andtourism management.
The APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Tourism is aninitiative of Vietnam in order to realise the APEC Strategy for StrengtheningQuality Growth and implement one of the four priorities of APEC cooperation in2017 – which is promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth. It isalso a major contribution to the International Year of Sustainable Tourism forDevelopment set by the United Nations.
Tourism cooperation among APEC members officially began in1991 with the establishment of APEC Tourism Working Group. In 2000, the APECTourism Charter, an important document providing long-term direction for theAPEC tourism cooperation, was adopted at the first APEC Tourism MinisterialMeeting in the Republic of Korea.
In 2016, Vietnam hosted the fourth APEC TourismMinisterial Meeting in central Quang Nam province’s Hoi An city, which adoptedthe “Hoi An Declaration on the Promotion of APEC Tourism Cooperation”. Thecountry has also regularly and actively participated in most importantactivities of APEC tourism cooperation and promoted bilateral ties with APECmember economies.
To date, Vietnam has exempted entry visas for nine APECmember economies and implemented electronic visas for three other countries.Top ten source markets of Vietnam in 2016 are APEC member economies.
Established in 1989, APEC comprises 21 economies, includingAustralia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, theRepublic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, thePhilippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.-VNA
