ASEAN tourism under scrutiny
BANGKOK -– A new strategic plan for tourism in the ASEAN countries of Southeast Asia will be prepared to help the region achieve an integrated ASEAN Community by 2015.
The plan will recommend a wide range of policies and reforms in ASEAN’s tourism operations.
It will cover marketing, branding, product development, human resource development, quality standards, investment strategies, cruise development, crisis management and communications, infrastructure, and border, customs, and immigration policy. 


The College of Innovation in Bangkok’s Thammasat University has been tasked with preparing the plan in full consultation with the industry.

The ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2011-2015 was commissioned as a result of partnerships and agreements between the ASEAN NTOs, the ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement office (ACE), a project designed and funded by the United States Agency for International Development, and tourism specialists at the university.


“The plan will be built on a broad vision and will make fresh, strategic and readily actionable tourism industry recommendations,” said Professor Dr Walter Jamieson of the university. 


The region’s tourism sector is required to identify and prepare new strategies and programmes for 2011-2015 for the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015.
The plan will replace the ASEAN Roadmap for the Integration of the Tourism Sector which expires in 2010. 


ACE and Thammasat University are expected to present the final ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan by November 2010.


Felix Cruz, chairman of the public-private sector ASEAN Tourism Association, welcomed the deal. “We need Thammasat to take an honest, candid and strategic view that clearly identifies opportunities, but doesn’t shy away from the hard issues,” he said.
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