SAARC region must develop tourism beyond boundaries:

Chamber calls for joint branding effort

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The SAARC region needs strong branding to unleash the tremendous potential in tourism and an integrated approach to develop tourism beyond national boundaries. “We need to work on common interest in an joint effort to develop tourism to trigger a chain of economic activities. This should be led by successful regional cooperation and liberalization of visa regime where multiple country visa for SAARC region could be made available, SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industries President Annisul Huq said.

The theme for tourism promotion by the SAARC region should be under “Visit South Asia” slogan where a window of opportunities could be captured.

It is important to create a common website with historical heritage, spectacular beauty of lands and green seas to attract travellers, he said.

A workshop on regional consultation on tourism potential in South Asia was held in Colombo yesterday organized jointly by SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industries. South Asia accounts for 23 percent of the world population which is 1.54 billion people and nearly 5 percent of the world map.

However, in the commercial world of trade, South Asia contributes only 2 percent of GDP, 1.5 percent of imports and 1 percent of exports and below 5 percent of intra-regional trade.

Tourism is the fastest growing single biggest industry that generates a large number of employment opportunities and accounts for 11 percent of the world GDP.

Total tourism revenue of the world for 2008 was $ 942 billion which on global financial crisis decreased to $ 852 billion in 2009.

SAARC region accounted only for $ 15.1 billion which was 0.12 percent of the total tourism revenue of the world. Over 800 million tourists were at various destinations of the world out of which 10 million or 0.13 percent received by South Asia last year. According to ADB research findings, South Asian countries rank high on price competitiveness.

However, they rank low on other indications such as level of basic infrastructure development, awareness of environmental aspects of development, advance in modern technological systems and infrastructure, human resources in tourism activity, tourism openness and social development. “We should have a regional perspective in tourism planning in South Asian region and a joint effort to identify commonalities to evolve a common strategy.

It is necessary to improve on connectivity in South Asia to facilitate comfortable travel and encourage tourism,” he said.