ACC Attended Regional Workshop on ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan

On 7 October 2014, at the invitation of the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) assigned its representatives to attend the regional workshop on ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan (ATSP) in Manila, the Philippines. More than 100 representatives from ASEAN National Tourism Organizations, international institutions such as Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Organization of Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA), Mekong Tourism Coordination Office (MTCO) , ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) and ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) attended the workshop. 

This regional workshop aimed at generating inputs from ASEAN NTOs and related Committees, international, regional and sub-regional institutions in developing a new ASEAN tourism strategic plan for 2016-2020. The ATSP 2011-2015 was created to guide ASEAN tourism cooperation in moving toward the establishment of ASEAN Community in 2015. Among the issues being discussed at the Workshop were the correlation between liberalization of the services sector, particularly air transportation and its impact on the region's mobility of people, and the enhancement of physical and institutional connectivity that play a critical role in the development of the tourism sector. The discussion also focused on the region's strategy to promote investment in the tourism sector, the need to develop hard as well as soft infrastructure to meet the growing demand, as well as the pooling of resources among others, through public-private partnership.

Mr. Tri Purnajaya, Director of Education, Culture & Tourism Division of ACC updated the workshop on ACC’s recent projects, and ACC’s inputs on how the new ATSP would further consolidate the ASEAN-China tourism co-operation under the framework of the establishment of ASEAN Community.