Bangkok – ASEAN’s tourism objectives filtered through during last week’s high powered ASEAN summit in Bangkok with a call for renewed commitment to pursue sustainable, inclusive and balanced tourism development.
That was the key takeaway as far as tourism was concerned according to comments made by the ASEAN Tourism Association president, Mingkwan Metmowlee, in an interview with Thailand Today last weekend.
She posted some of her comments on her Facebook page noting ASEAN leaders had set 2025 as the year the 10-member countries would be recognised globally for its “quality tourism” and marketed as a single destination.
But that has turned out to be a difficult challenge as marketing funds are insufficient to promote the vast region and member countries prefer to spend heavily on their national campaigns.
In the interview, Mingkwan emphasised a campaign that might unite them. A regional initiative to improve services associated with accessibility. That appears to have gained the attention of all member countries, although she suggested Thailand may have to play catch up on extending accessibility to core transport systems.
“Accessible Tourism “ is one of the major issues that is being addressed by the global tourism industry… but we have to intensify efforts and encourage the Thai government to do more to support this issue.”
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