ASEAN members have discussed travel bubbles, green lines and vaccination passports and recently, the trend of new re-opening models being piloted in ASEAN.
The online meeting of the ASEAN Tourism Competitiveness Committee (ATCC) presided by Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Vice Chairman of Vietnam National Administration, took place on October 11.
Speaking opening the meeting, Mr. Ha Van Sieu emphasized that 2021 is a difficult year for the South East Asia region, due to the severe impacts of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. At present, strict international travel restrictions are still remaining in most countries, and the tourism activities are not yet going back to normal as pre-pandemic.
ASEAN members have discussed travel bubbles, green lines and vaccination passports and recently, the trend of new re-opening models being piloted in ASEAN. All of the evidence proves ASEAN countries continuous efforts to rebound the tourism industry back to its track, and soften the impacts of the pandemic to tourism enterprises and community. The four Tourism Committees have tried to implement the Updated ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2016-2025.
This year has recognised many joint efforts of ASEAN in promoting the recovery of the region’s tourism industry, such as the development of “Study Report for the Post-COVID-19 Recovery Plan for ASEAN Tourism” and currently the draft “ASEAN Guidelines on Hygiene and Safety for Tourism Professionals and Communities in the Tourism Industry”.
He also highly appreciated the proposal on the new ASEAN Tourism Logo, as this is the prudent time to promote a new impression of the ASEAN destination, that is active, attractive and unique in harmony.
He believed that in the first stage of opening international tourism, intra-ASEAN will be one of the target markets. The regional tourism industry will be well-oriented to overcome the pandemic together, resume stronger and be more resilient.
Sharing about Vietnam tourism, Mr. Ha Van Sieu informed that in September, the Prime Minister of Viet Nam directed a pilot plan to re-open Phu Quoc Island for international tourists in 2021. Viet Nam Tourism is actively coordinating with relevant sectors and local authorities to finalise the pilot re-opening plan, in which ASEAN is an important market.
At the 12th meeting of the ATCC, delegates discussed marketing and promotions, product development, tourism investments, tourism standards, connectivity and travel facilitation, digital transformation of tourism, tourism research and information, and actions for next years.
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