The 1st Meeting of ACMECS Tourism Ministers

The 1st ACMECS Tourism Ministerial Meeting, with the theme "Five Countries - One Destination", took place on 11th September 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City in the framework of ITE HCMC 2013.
In attendance were representatives of five countries: Dr. Thong Khon – Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism; Bosengkham Vonhdara – Laos’s Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism; Htay Aung – Myanmar’s Union Minister of Hotels and Tourism; Sombat Kuruphan – Thailand’s Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports and Hoang Tuan Anh – Vietnam’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The meeting was chaired by Minister Hoang Tuan Anh. In the opening speech, he emphasised: the 1st Meeting of ACMECS Tourism Ministers aims to concretize “the Vientiane Declaration” and ACMECS Economic Cooperation Strategy; to contribute to improve the quality of products and services, to promote tourism…
At the meeting, the ministers reviewed tourism cooperation in ACMECS according to the Vientiane Declaration and ACMECS action plan approved at the ACMECS Summit in March this year. They acknowledged results of cooperation in many fields such as promotion; human resource development; security, safety for visitors; encouraging the relevant agencies and localities to participate and cooperate to develop tourism...
The ministers were pleased about the development of the ACMECS tourism in 2012 when the member countries welcomed more than 37 million international arrivals, including 6 million intra-regional ones, a growth of nearly 18 per cent compared with last year. The ACMECS tourism minister agreed to strive for a double-digit growth rate by 2015.
They also adopted Joint Statement on tourism development and cooperation; tourism marketing and promotion; development of website, logo and slogan for ACMECS tourism. In order to attract more international visitors, the ministers agreed to boost travelling facilitation in the region.
In addition, the ministers agreed to set up a new tourism corridor along Bagan (Myanmar); Chiang Mai (Thailand); Luang Prabang, Vientiane (Laos); Siem Reap (Cambodia); Da Nang and Hue (Vietnam).
The second ACMECS tourism ministerial meeting will be held in Myanmar in 2015 when this country is the host of the ACMECS Summit..