An overview of the meeting (Photo: VNA)Vientiane (VNA) – Minister of Culture, Sportsand Tourism Nguyen Van Hung has suggested the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) countries to strengthen connection and support ASEAN centres inChina, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (RoK) in tourism promotional activities.
He made the suggestion at the 23rd Meeting of ASEAN PlusThree Tourism Ministers on January 26, within the framework of the ASEANTourism Forum 2024 (ATF) which is taking place in Vientiane, Laos.
The minister also urged ASEAN members to jointly participate inexhibitions in the three partner countries and contribute to making the ASEANtourism booth more lively by providing publications and display items and sending delegations to the events to introduce their culture, art,cuisine, and craft villages.
Vietnam stands ready to work closely with other memberstates to implement tourism cooperation plans between ASEAN and the threepartner countries to boost the effectiveness of their cooperation,Hung said.
The Vietnamese official emphasised that the three partnercountries are key tourism markets of not only ASEAN countries but also Vietnam. In 2023, Vietnam welcomed nearly 6 millionvisitor arrivals from the three countries, accounting for 47% of total foreignarrivals, he continued.
Preliminary figures in 2023 showed that ASEAN Plus Threecountries attracted over 147 million visitors last year.
The meeting expressed optimism that the tourism sectorwould continue to recover as demand for travel continues to grow.
Participants exchanged views and information on the development of their respective tourism sector in the past year. They noted that24 activities or 61.5% of items in the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Tourism Cooperation WorkPlan 2021-2025 have been implemented.
The meeting emphasised the importance of upskilling andreskilling the tourism workforce, thereby, expressing appreciation to the ASEANPlus Three partner countries for their continued commitment in advancing the skills andknowledge of ASEAN tourism professionals through various training programmesand activities.
Within the framework of ASEAN-China tourism cooperation, themeeting highly appreciated China's support for ASEAN-China tourism cooperationactivities, noting that in 2023, China organised three events, namely theChina-ASEAN Tourism Expo 2023, the 2023 China International Travel Mart and theChina-ASEAN Tourism Human Resources Training Programme.
The meeting also appreciated Japan for organising the ASEAN-JapanTourism Ministers' Special Dialogue in October 2023 and the country's supportfor tourism cooperation activities between ASEAN member countries and Japan.
ASEAN and Japan were encouraged to enhance furthercooperation in the tourism sector and implement initiatives to promotesustainable tourism including sharing best practices, and advancing mutualexchange of visitors, based on the joint media statement adopted at the Special Dialogue.
The meeting hailed the RoK for itscontinued support of ASEAN-RoK tourism cooperation activities through the KoreaPartnership Initiative for Sustainable Tourism (KOPIST) Programme. Itencouraged ASEAN and the RoK to discuss ways to enhance cooperation with afocus on activities to support sustainable tourism./.
