South Asian Media commit to support governments in tourism
development
Tourism media from South Asia have responded eagerly to the proposal
of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Nepal Tourist Board (NTB) to
work together in pursuing sustainable development and poverty
alleviation through tourism.
This follows a meeting held in the Nepalese capital on August 26 and
27 organised by ADB and NTB and supported by the World Tourism
Organisation, at which press representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India and Nepal met government officials to evaluate possibilities for
closer cooperation in the promotion of tourism, crisis communications
and the ongoing fight against poverty.
The main objective of the workshop was to strengthen the relationship
between the media and the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)
Programme, to enable the press to make a direct contribution to
encouraging tourism in the sub-region, informing travel writers and
focusing the media in general on the importance of tourism as an
economic activity and the sustainability issues involved.
Much of the discussion was geared to regional cooperation among the
four countries, especially between the media and the public and the
private sectors.
The workshop was opened by the Nepalese Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ramesh Nath Pandey who stressed the need for governments to recognise
the importance of the media in tourism development and his country's
commitment to pursuing tourism as its main economic activity.
Executive Editor of the Bangkok-based Travel Impact Newswire, Imtiaz
Muqbil said that huge investment plans were already under way in Asia
such as the Chinese highway system and India's rapid air-traffic
expansion.
He predicted a great opportunity for sub-regional development through
the new Buddhist circle project, which will connect all the countries.
The four countries are all members of SASEC, one of whose main aims
is to reduce the plight of the region's poorer citizens.
They account for some 500 million people out of an estimated 900
million poor people in Asia and the Pacific.
"South Asia is one of the poorest and most densely populated areas in
the world. However, because of the region's unique endowment of
resources, it can be transformed into a leading sub region of economic
growth," ADB country director Sultan Hafeez Rahman said.
"It's good to see that governments and international organisations
recognise the importance of our work," commented Rahman Janagir, a
journalist from Bangladesh. It was on his initiative that delegates
agreed to establish a South Asia Forum of Tourism Journalists (SAFTOJ),
to which WTO will act as advisor. Nepal's Assistant Minister for
Culture, Tourism and Aviation, Ms Yankila Sherpa, said the "success of
(staging) such a demanding event and its outcomes confirm that Nepali
tourism is alive and dynamic".
"It is true that there are security problems in remote parts of our
country. However, tourism moves on and we ask the media to also
highlight this part of reality".
Nepal's attractions include the highest mountain in the world, Mt.
Everest, and a string of UNESCO world heritage sites that include seven
in the Kathmandu valley alone as well as Lumbini, the birthplace of The
Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama).
WTO Chief of Press and Communications Rok Klancnik spoke of the
phenomenal expansion of world tourism, while highlighting the vital need
for crisis communications, a topic which countries should pay much more
attention to, he added.
"Enhancing government - media relationship and increasing capacity in
the wide range of tourism communications, including crisis management
and the role of the media in poverty alleviation, is at the heart of the
TOURCOM Programme, which is itself central to WTO Press and
Communications activities."
Two further TOURCOM regional conferences are slated for later this
year, from September 20-21 in Amman, Jordan, and October 12-13 in Riga,
Latvia. |