In a Meeting during ATF 2009 in Hanoi, Vietnam, tourism leaders from six Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries approved a joint statement to boost tourism and worked out further development plans for the coming future.
The GMS countries are expected to take in 53 million international tourists by the year 2015, creating jobs for more than 4.2 million laborers.
In recent months, the global economic crisis and climate change have taken their toll on the region’s tourism industry.

The six ministers from GMS including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have commited themselves to the sustainable management of natural and cultural tourism sites. They intend to jointly market tourism in the region, while ensuring environmental protection and the sharing of natural resources.
A new website will be launched soon to develop Explore Mekong’s marketing campaign: www.exploremekong.org.
The ministers also supported the Visit Mekong 2009/10 campaign, launched by Thai tourism leaders. They also committed to improve and expand sub-regional infrastructure to make travel between the countries easier.

The ministers will be discussing a new visa abolishment and a one-price program for international and domestic travellers at the 14th ASEAN Summit in February 2009 in Thailand. All ministers agreed that one visa for all member countries would make international travel decidedly easier and would bring in more tourist. The goal must be that international tourists need only one visa to visit the ten countries, applying in Asia what is now quite normal in the European Union.

by Joachim Fischer, currently in Hanoi, Vietnam