BY 2025, Asean wants to be seen as a quality tourism destination offering a unique, diverse regional experience. It also wants the sector to be committed to sustainability, and for operators to be promoting new creative products and more intra-travel in the region.

The preliminary figures indicate that Asean members received about 98 million international visitors last year, up 7.3 per cent on 2014. Intra-Asean travel maintained its position as the major share of tourists, making up 42 per cent of total arrivals in 2015.

In line with the establishment of the Asean Community at the start of 2016, tourism ministers from 10 nations last week drafted the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan for 2016-25.

They also agreed to develop the “Visit Asean@50”, a tourism campaign to jointly promote and showcase the region as a single tourism destination.

Visit Asean@50 will feature up to 600 iconic tourism products, events and experiences, particularly those reflecting the richness of the region’s cultures, heritage and natural environment, as well as the warm hospitality extended by the people of Asean.

The target markets are intra-regional travellers, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Europe.

They will be targeted through tourism packages for activities carried out by Asean members at international and national levels.

In a bid to attract more quality tourists, a regional secretariat was established to oversee last month’s implementation of the Asean Mutual Recognition Arrangement for Tourism Professionals. The secretariat is designed to support the MRA-TP’s operations and management and provide recommendations on necessary mechanisms to enable its smooth implementation.

The Asean Tourism Professionals Registration System (ATPRS) was set up to facilitate the registration of tourism professionals and related stakeholders, and to serve as a matchmaking mechanism between tourism professionals and their potential employers.

Australia will continue to support the establishment of the MRA-TP’s infrastructure through the Asean-Australia Development Cooperation Programmes.

Furthermore, the Asean-China Centre, the Asean-Japan Centre and the Asean-Korea Centre will continue to promote tourism in the region, while the World Tourism Organisation will continue to assist with the development of on River Based Tourism Development.

This year, 89 hotels in the region complied with the new Asean Green Hotel Standard as part of a sustainable tourism push.

The first Asean Homestay Award ceremony was held last week in Manila in a bid to encourage community-based tourism.

However, the move to have an open-sky policy in the region – where production networks were integrated and there was enhance regional trade by allowing airlines from Asean member states to fly freely throughout the region -has not really occurred yet.

An academic from Singapore, Alan Tan, said that Indonesia had not yet opened its second cities to the policy while Laos and the Philippines had not done for their capitals.

Private sector gains

In Manila, the SMX Convention Centre is undergoing a major renovation as the eight-year old venue positions itself to capture a larger slice of the region’s meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) market. Also, new hotels, entertainment complexes and a casino will soon be open to shake up tourism in the Philippines.

Bangkok’s rebranded Central Hospitality International has moved to better tap the segment by launching the Centara Q Resort in Rayong on the east coast of Thailand.hile four provinces in Laos – Saravan, Xekong, Attapeu and Champasak – are set to pro

mote themselves to international markets this year under the theme “Southern Laos Charming by Nature”.

The Thai-Cambodia joint-venture hotel, Tara Angkor, hopes to see a spike in business as a result of the implementation of the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan.

The 206-room property has an average room rate of US$120 (Bt4,320).

“About 70 per cent of our customers are from Europe, 10 per cent from Japan, and the rest from other nations,” said sales manager Pattakwan Tanapongdecha.

Other hotel chains with a presence in Thailand, as well as Bangkok hospital also had a presence in Angkor, she said.

Meanwhile, Cambodia’s first premium airport lounge has opened at Phnom Penh Airport.

The lounge can be used by anyone regardless of the airline they are travelling on or their seating class, and is priced from $35 (Bt1,050) to $50 for two to five hours.

Sai Khan Hlaing, managing director of Air Tour Myanmar, said outbound tourism numbers rose 30 per cent last year with neighbouring countries, particularly Thailand, the chief beneficiaries.