October 22, 2008 16:52 PM
SINGAPORE, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- The tourism industry in Asia may have been affected by the current economic slowdown but the region is expected to rebound and grow in the medium term, said Singapores Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang.
He said the industry's downturn in Asia would be cushioned by the continued increase of intra-regional travel with demand largely driven by travellers from China, India and South Korea.
"Other Asian source markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam would similarly grow and contribute to the rebound of the industry in the region," he said when opening the inaugural ITB Asia Convention at Suntec here today.
ITB Asia is the Asian edition of ITB Berlin, the worlds largest travel trade show in Europe, jointly organised by Messe Berlin and Singapore Tourism Board.
About 850 travel companies from 58 countries including Malaysia, and 5,000 travel representatives are taking part in the three-day show.
Exhibitors from Malaysia include Tourism Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak tourism authorities.
Lim said destinations in Asia such as Macau and Dubai had also boosted their destination appeal to international visitors in recent years and this had resulted in rising interest in Asia as a travel destination.
He said the current turmoil in the global financial markets, combined with higher air travel costs and rising fuel prices had impacted consumer sentiment and discretionary spending in many tourism destinations around the world including Singapore.
He urged the local and international tourism players to work together, forge new partnerships, invest in the development and training of their workers, as well as commit to capability building in Asian markets.
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation, Asia would continue to be a well sought after destination with close to 400 million total visitor arrivals to the East Asia and Pacific region by 2020.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association had forecast that the Asia-Pacific region would see growth of seven to eight percent in international arrivals for 2008 to 2010 with the Asian region attracting 460 million visitors by 2010, up from some 350 million visitors in 2006.
Source: BERNAMA
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