APEC Countries Huddled to Give Tourism a Boost

Asia-Pacific tourism ministers and officials from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries have concluded their two-day meeting in Vietnam’s Hoi An.

The aim for the meeting was to boost tourism growth among member countries, ahead of an APEC summit which is to be held in Hanoi next month.

In addition to taking summit delegates on a tour of its ancient town of Hoi An and My Son Sanctuary, both UNESCO world cultural heritage sites, Hoi An also hosted an APEC Tourism Fair, attracting visitors to some 100 pavilions.

Tourism ministers from the Pacific Rim countries met to discuss how to boost growth and investments, at the same time remove barriers in the tourism industry.

Matters discussed ranged from raising airport capacity and reaching open-skies agreements to boost air travel, to ways to increase cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Vietnam’s national tourism administration also proposed the establishment of an APEC Investment Forum to lure capital from investors interested in the tourism industry, in addition to rotating hosting of the annual APEC Tourism Fair.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has estimated that the tourism industry now employs over 100 million people in the APEC countries, with 30 million more jobs expected by 2010 when the industry will be worth over $3 trillion dollars a year.