ASEANTA, an umbrella group of national tourism associations in the Asean, will be pursuing more public-private partnerships to boost the potential of the region as a tourism destination, and ensure the sustainability of the integrated Asean economic community (AEC).
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, newly elected Aseanta President Aileen Clemente said that, while the group has been around for some 30 years, “its importance now, more than ever, comes in the wake of the AEC, where we want to increase private-public partnership in the tourism industry.” Clemente is president of Rajah Travel Corp., one of the leading inbound travel agencies in the country, and a BusinessMirror columnist.
Clemente added that Aseanta will be working closely with national tourism organizations (NTOs) to help promote Asean to foreign visitors markets. In 2013 some 54 million foreign visitors traveled to Asean, majority of whom went to Thailand (20 million), with the Philippines receiving only 4.3 million, according to data from the Asean.org.
She said the Philippines would benefit from these promotions of Asean as a tourism destination, and that Aseanta “will be supporting the effort to all issues and challenges around air connectivity, which is one of those being aligned under the AEC.” This includes an “open- skies policy” within Asean, she said.
The Philippines currently has only one direct connection to Europe, via the Manila-London route of Philippine Airlines. Other European connections are served by international carriers, which stop over in their respective hubs before making the flight to Manila. She also said Aseanta is supportive of a one-visa policy, where only one visa is needed by foreign visitors to travel to all Asean member nations.
To strengthen public-private partnerships, Clemente said Aseanta could be invited to the meetings of the Asean NTOs to “align efforts” on tourism issues; Asean NTOs could attend Aseanta meetings again; and that both parties jointly host the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) and Asean Tourism Conference (ATC). NTOs are government agencies that oversee their home country’s tourism industry.
“We believe that, with these, we are not only continuously building the fabric of trust, but, that together, we can accelerate the process of change that needs to be undertaken to ensure that we have a strong, sustainable and resilient Asean Economic Community, or even at least, Asean Tourism Industry,” she stressed in a recent speech to the 41st Asean NTOs Meeting at Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.
Last year Aseanta organized the Travex of ATC and ATF, for the first time in many years, and was able to attract “more than 600 buyers from 68 countries, a recorded booth sales of 449, and 155 registered media representatives coming from Europe, US/Canada, Australia, South and Central America, Asia, and Asean. Travex is a venue for buyers and suppliers of Asean tourism product to network and conduct business with each other.
Also, Clemente said, Aseanta, with the Malaysian government, “were also able to contribute to the Asean NTO fund of more than 300,000 ringgit, or around $100,000.”
Among her plans for Aseanta include the amendment of the organization’s constitution and by-laws to boost membership by including meetings and event-management companies, schools, among others.
“Aseanta will also be adopting new policies and plans that it intends to carry out to seize the upside potential of the Asean integration. This includes having a media plan to ensure that Aseanta documents and provides information on the role that it plays and shows a credible demonstration of international cooperation and unity with the predominant priority of promoting the Asean,” she added.
Aside from pursuing efforts to promote Asean as regional tourism destination to foreign travelers, Aseanta is also boosting its efforts to promote the region itself among its member-nations, “as there are so many favorable conditions that we can capitalize on, including affordability, improved, and increased connectivity.”
She said Aseanta strongly supports the creation of the Asean Pass, which was recently launched by Malaysian low-cost carrier Air Asia. The Asean Pass “is a travel pass, which allows guests to lock down low base fares with credit, and redeem flights with the credit to travel across 10 Asean countries – Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Philippines,” according to Air Asia’s web site.