SE Asia eyeing regional tourists

SE Asia eyeing regional tourists
Fri Jan 9, 10:17 am ET

HANOI (AFP) – Southeast Asia will seek to attract more regional tourists to offset the effects of the global economic downturn on western markets, the region's tourism ministers said Friday.

About 58 million people visited the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2007, the last year for which complete data is available, a meeting of ministers in Hanoi was told.

"We'll be lucky if we can keep it the same," said ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan, who added that the sector had suffered in the last quarter of 2008 and was expected to be down through at least the first half of 2009.

Surin said about half of all visitors to ASEAN countries already came from within the region, and that the bloc would seek to attract more tourists from Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia and New Zealand.

"We will not be able to shield ourselves totally from the impact of the global slowdown but at least we have enough resources in the region," he said.

"Asia's middle class will travel anyway. But rather than travel far away they will certainly consider closer markets like ASEAN."

The bloc also plans a "Visit Southeast Asia" marketing campaign, to be designed with US funding, and to target youth travel with new tour packages.

Tourism ministers from Japan, China and South Korea attended the Hanoi conference with ministers from ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.