Neighbouring nations team up to discuss tourism plan

A biennial tourism conference that brings together officials from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Viet Nam to discuss co-ordinated development will be held in HCM City next month.
The Tourism Investment Conference (TIC) will be held under the aegis of the annual International Travel Exhibition in this southern city and includes Myanmar for the first time.
The conference, on September 13, has been themed as "Four countries-One destination". Ministerial delegates, tour operators and experts from the four countries will discuss abundant investment opportunities in the region.
There will be three workshops on linking regional transport networks, attracting investment in amusement-hotel-resort complexes, and case studies on new tourism business models.
The event, which is strongly backed by tourism authorities in the four countries, hopes to attract 200 delegates.
"TIC 2011 is expected to bring many business opportunities to international and domestic investors and tourism companies," La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, said.
Also for the first time, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Greater Mekong Subregional Sustainable Tourism Development Project will sponsor the conference.
Figures from the World Travel and Tourism Council showed that the Mekong region last year generated US$22.1 billion in economic output linked to travel, shopping, entertainment, transport, and other tourism-related services, Khanh added.