The ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) is a regional co-operative effort to promote the Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) region as one tourist destination. Roger Allnutt reports from the annual event, held earlier this year in Manila.
The theme for this year’s forum – One community for sustainability – was shared by all ten ATF member nations: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The 35th annual event, which attracted 2,600 tourism officials, buyers, sellers and media, was officially opened by Philippines president Benigno Simeon Aquino III.
With tourism being a vital foothold in the economic and social growth of the region and its countries, ASEAN is committed to strive towards delivering a quality destination experience for each and every visitor – an endeavour centred on responsibility, sustainability and inclusive tourism development.
Tourism ministers at the forum adopted a new ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2016 to 2025 with the following vision: “By 2025, ASEAN will be a quality tourism destination offering a unique diverse ASEAN experience and will be committed to responsible, sustainable, inclusive and balanced tourism development, so as to contribute to the socioeconomic well-being of ASEAN people.”
In recent years ATF has focused on encouraging tourists from within the ASEAN community to explore within their own country or other counties of the group. However, with the huge markets of tourists from China, Japan and Korea and India, efforts are now concentrating on deriving maximum numbers from those markets while also tapping into other markets such as Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Although it is the development of new hotels and resorts that attract the most media attention, there is a concerted push for more resources to be devoted to projects that increase community participation. This can be as simple as the construction or improvement of roads to remoter areas and attractions, be they beaches, mountains, waterfalls or local museums. The spin-off to the local communities can be game changing.
The increase in community involvement has great potential for money to flow to remoter areas and for example, local guides to be trained and employed. A recent development has been a marked increase in accommodation options through such initiatives as homestays, which provide the opportunity for a more in-depth experience for tourists. A number of homestays were honoured in an awards presentation during ATF and it was a joy to see the pride of the recipients so recognised.
FLIGHTS
There is a growing emphasis within ASEAN countries for better connectivity of air flights between countries with one aim of making it easier for tourists to include more than one country on an itinerary. The aviation sector is a key driver of the economic future of the region.
Until recently there were no direct flights from New Zealand to the Philippines but in December last year, Philippine Airlines introduced a four-times weekly service between Auckland and Manila, via Cairns.
Early signs are that the service has been well patronised with satisfactory loadings in both directions. It is understood the situation will be reviewed around the end of March 2016 with a view to the longer-term plans for the route. The airline also has direct flights to Manila from other Australia airports including Sydney and Brisbane.
The number of New Zealand tourists to the Philippines was 15,724 in 2015, an increase of 17 per cent on the previous year. It is hoped this growth will assist in the maintenance of the flights to Manila.
VISAS
Progress is being made to make visa free travel available for tourists from countries within the ASEAN region to other countries in the region. Many countries have also introduced (some over many years) visa free travel for tourists from other countries.
New Zealand passport holders (and also Australian) have been “penalised” with a visa for many countries still required, even for short tourist visits and this can be an expensive consideration when planning to visit a number of different countries. Nowadays the introduction of e-visas or visa on arrival at major airports has simplified obtaining a visa.
The question of visa free travel is essentially a political decision.
However, I was informed that Indonesia is likely to have visa-free travel for tourists from New Zealand sometime in 2016.
ECOTOURISM
One of the most rapidly developing area for visitors is ecotourism, sometimes in conjunction with volunteering which is attracting more participants. Options are being introduced in many packages.
FESTIVALS
All ASEAN countries hold festivals during the year and it is worthwhile to investigate the timing of festivals when choosing travel itineraries. From a photographer’s viewpoint the colour and vitality of festivals is a huge bonus. During my visit to the Philippines for ATF I noted a seemingly continuous line-up of festivals, many associated with ethnic or religious celebrations.
Roger Allnutt attended ATF as a guest of the Philippines Department of Tourism.