ASEAN tourism organisations to focus on investments

The ASEAN National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) have agreed on concrete initiatives to further expand tourism facilities and infrastructure by focusing on attracting investments to the regional grouping.

Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the agreement reached by the NTOs was definitely the right direction for ASEAN as it is headed to the future. “With the ASEAN family now consisting of over 600 million people, we need to enhance our collaboration to achieve economic stability,” he said.

In line with this collaboration, Malaysia would co-organise the first ASEAN Plus Three Tourism Investment Seminar in association with the ASEAN Korea Centre in Seoul in 2018. The meeting, which was attended by all the ASEAN tourism ministers, was chaired by Thailand’s Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat.

Mohamed Nazri said Malaysia also fully supported the initiative of ‘Accessible Tourism for All’ which was discussed during the ASEAN NTOs meeting. The country would work effectively with the regional grouping in bringing better accessibility for the disabled, senior citizens and children to enjoy its tourism offerings, said the minister.

Nazri also announced that Malaysia would implement Visit Malaysia Year in 2020 with the tagline, ‘Travel. Enjoy. Respect’. The tagline, he said, was in line with that used by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in promoting sustainable tourism development across the world.