cruise tourism current situation and trends in asia and...

Asia-Pacific Newsletter I 2012, Issue 25

UNWTO Tianjin Training Program onTourism Marketing

19th Session of the UNWTOGeneral Assembly – Special Events

Destination Report : Vietnam Tourism

Cruise TourismCurrentSituation and Trendsin Asia and the Pacific

Special Report :

Specially Funded by the Ministery of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of KoreaWorld Tourism OrganizationCapitán Haya 42, 28020 Madrid, SpainTel: (34) 91 567 81 00 / Fax: (34) 91 571 37 33 [email protected] / www.UNWTO.org

Compendium of Tourism Statistics - 2011 edition

Handbook on Tourism Product Development

The 2011 edition of the Compendium of Tourism Statistics has been considerably expanded and its

Tourism products are the basis for a destination’s tourism sector operation: unless the tourism product meets the

The Asia-Pacific region is considered the world’s religious core with the greatest number of pilgrims and

new format features information on inbound, outbound and dom-estic tourism, tourism industries and employment as well as macro-economic international tourism related indicators. Much more than an update on previous Compen-dium editions, the new publication responds to countries’ petitions for enlarging the focus of tourism to also domestic tourism, tourism industries and employment, as well as the need for further international comparability on these aspects.The Compendium is designed to provide a condensed and quick-reference guide on the major tourism statistical data and indicators in each country. It provi-des statistical information on tourism in 212 countries and territories from around the world for the period 2005 – 2009 and is available in English, with country notes given in English, French and Spanish.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1389-8

needs and expectations of tourists, the destination cannot realise its full potential. However, only few destinations focus their attention on the development and delivery of the various attractions and activities that make up the tourism product. The UNWTO/ETC Handbook on Tourism Product

Development outlines the essential elements in the process of tourism product development planning and implementation, e.g. coordination, consultation, collaboration – co-opetition. It illustrates these principles through a range of successful approaches and case studies from around the world and sets out best practice examples and benchmarks by which destinations can assess their own product development system and methods.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1395-9

Policy and Practice for Global Tourism

Policy and Practice for Global Tourism is a guide to the major themes in world tourism today. Through 11

chapters, it presents an overview of topics ranging from sustainable tourism to social networks or emerging markets to creating a successful destination brand. Examples of UNWTO’s work in key areas are highlighted throughout the publication, and these are complimented by case studies and opinions from business leaders, destinations management organizations, academics and NGOs.Policy and Practice for Global Tourism is aimed at decision makers working in the public and private sectors alike, as well as those who are simply interested in learning more about this fast-moving and dynamic sector of the global economy.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1379-9

Religious Tourism in Asia and the Pacific

travellers for religious events, for both international and domestic tourism. It is estimated that there are approximately six hundred million national and international religious and spiritual voyages in the world, of which 40% take place in Europe and over half in Asia. According to UNESCO, 60% of the world’s population practises a religion and these believers form the demographic base of religious tourism. This study has therefore clearly identified areas of interest that appeal to the religious aspects of travel and it is the responsibility of tourism administrators and travel professionals to glean this information and look at religious tourism as a resource in the same light as the sun, sea and sand holidays that are readily marketed by tourism professionals.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1380-5

China continues to develop as a leading powerhouse in tourism, and it becomes ever more important to

Report on Urban Tourism Development in China

examine the various facets of tourism in China in order to understand the potential of this market, and the effect it will have on global tourism. This report analyses the statistics of Chinese inbound metropolitan tourism markets, as well as the outbound trends of metropolitan residents from 2000 to 2007. Twenty of China’s best tourism cities are analyzed. Originally released in Chinese by the Shanghai Institute of Tourism in 2009, this English edition provides special insight into China’s cities as source markets as well as destinations.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1397-3

UNWTO Asia Paci�c Newsletter | 2012, Issue25

Cover:Destination Report:Vietnam Tourism

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UNWTO World Tourism Barometer

UNWTO Tianjin Training Program on Tourism Marketing

5th UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook

3rd World Ecotourism Conference

Maritime Silk Road Poster Exhibition

China Joining UNWTO/WTTC Leaders for Tourism Campaign

Dialogue with Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand

Thailand Tourism Recovery Plan

Event Review : 19th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly – Special Events

International Seminar for Medical Tourism

Special Report : Cruise Tourism - Current Situation and Trends in Asia and the Pacific


Sustainable Tourism Development Success Stories: Mekong Tourism Organization

Focus on Tourism Policy : There’s Nothing Like Australia – Tourism Australia’s Global Marketing Campaign

Conferences and Meetings

Asia Pacific News Brief

An Introduction to Pacific Asia Tourism.org

Editor-in-ChiefChulwon Kim, Ph.D

Assistant EditorsHyeri Han | Jungho Suh | Jooyoung Park | Dongin Kim | Yiji Im

Designing/Printing Co.Design ORUM

Senior EditorsDaekwan Kim, Ph.D | William Cannon Hunter, Ph.D | Heyryon Lee, Ph.D | Brett Bouchard

PublishersTaleb Rifai, Ph.D | Secretary-General of the UNWTOInwon Choue, Ph.D | President of Kyung Hee Univ.Republic of KoreaSpecially Funded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea

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China Joining UNWTO/WTTC Leaders forTourism Campaign

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Event Review :19th Session ofthe UNWTO General Assembly – Special Events p36

There’s Nothing Like Australia – Tourism Australia’s Global Marketing Campaign

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● Contrary to the trend in recent years, growth in arriv-als during the first eight months of 2011 was higher in advanced economies (+4.8%) than in emerging ones (+4.2%), due largely to the strong results recorded by Europe (+6%). In Northern Europe (+6%) and Cen-tral and Eastern Europe (+9%), the recovery which began in 2010 gained momentum this year. The same is true for some Southern European destinations (+8%), which this year also benefited from the shift in travel away from Middle East (-9%) and North Africa (-15%).

●Since the beginning of the year, emerging economies have continued to prosper, while most advanced economies - apart from the ‘newly industrialized’ economies of Asia - have been sluggish and plagued by uncertainty. Yet, a series of negative shocks, including the earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku Region of Japan, and the revolutions and protests in various countries of North Africa and the Middle East were by far the most significant.

International Tourist Arrivals, monthly evolutionAdvanced economies (million)

Source: World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) ©

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Asia and the Pacific After the bumper rebound of 13% in 2010, international tourist arrivals in the region continued to grow in the first eight months of 2011 albeit at a slower rate, of just under 6%. However, tourism in the region is always highly sus-ceptible to adverse events and developments – whether natural, economic or man-made. This year has been no exception. By far the most important event influencing tourism in the region was the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan on 11 March, which not only devastated inbound tourism and damaged Japanese do-mestic and outbound tourism, but also disrupted travel patterns throughout the region.The Panel of Experts also emphasized the effects of other events on their destinations, such as the ‘Arab Spring’, the earthquake in New Zealand and the ash cloud from the volcano eruption in Chile. As a result, arrivals in in-dividual countries might be up or down by as much as a third.Largely as a result of the disaster and reduced travel in Japan, international arrivals in North-East Asia rose by only 1.4% in the first eight months of this year:● In Japan itself, arrivals were down by half in April and

were still down by a quarter as of September. Out-bound travel initially fell by about 15% – outbound tours were suspended, but gradually came back to normal after three weeks – but monthly outbound numbers have exceeded those in 2010 since July. Do-mestic travel was of course also very seriously affected.

● International arrivals in China increased by a modest 1% in the first nine months of the year, with declines in demand from Japan and Hong Kong. However, this result follows the boost of last year’s Expo Shang-hai and does consolidate it. Outbound demand still remains much stronger (up 20% or more). Domestic travel also continues to grow apace, with an increase in trips of about 12%.

UNWTOWorld TourismBarometer

International Tourism – 2011 Result for January-Augustfirst eight months of the year account for an average 69% of the yearly total as a result of the higher sum-mer travel season.

●The Northern Hemisphere peak summer season months of July and August showed encouraging re-sults, with growth at close to 4% over 2010, corre-sponding to an extra 8 million arrivals. At 118 mil-lion, July saw the highest number of international tourist arrivals ever recorded in one month (August: 112million).

●The total number of international tourist arrivals reached 671 million January through August, up 29 million over the 642 million in the same period of 2010 (603 million in 2009 and 640 million in 2008). In a normal year, international tourist arrivals in the

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●International tourist arrivals for countries moni-tored by the UNWTO reveal the following results through to August 2011 - 122 countries show positive figures, of which 57 show double digit growth in ar-rivals, while only 27 reported negative results. A sum-mary of data indicates that worldwide arrivals growth for January to August 2011 is estimated at 4.5%.

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International arrivals in South Asia are growing just as quickly as those in South-East Asia, with a 13% increase so far this year:● Economic growth in India is now almost as fast as

that in China, and inbound and domestic tourism are thriving. However, the difficulties of Air India (including its suspension from Star Alliance) are not helping. There is plenty of investment in new hotels. International arrivals were up 10% in the first nine months of 2011 and the government has set an ambi-tious target to double arrivals to 12 million by 2016.

● Arrivals in the smaller tourism destinations are grow-ing rapidly: Nepal reports an increase of 23% in January-September, the Maldives +18% for the same period (with an especially large contribution from China, which now accounts for 20% of total arrivals), and Bhutan +29% through July.

● Tourism in Sri Lanka continues to recover: arrivals were up 34% in the first nine months of the year, after a 46% increase last year, but are still short of their po-tential. Much investment is required.

Conditions for tourism in Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh continue to remain much more difficult. All seem to be making some progress, but recent figures are not available. Arrivals in Oceania were flat in the first eight months of the year, with a 0.3% decrease in arrivals in Australia balanced by a 1.3% increase in New Zealand, where the earthquake in Christchurch on 22 February had a serious and lasting impact on arrivals in the South Is-land. The ash cloud from Chile’s Volcán Puyehue in July briefly disrupted air services in both countries. Inbound tourism in both countries is also affected by the strength of their currencies. European and US demand for such long-haul and therefore expensive destinations is (in cur-rent economic conditions) muted, and Asians are in gen-eral heading towards destinations in South and South-East Asia.● Although the Chinese are said to be discovering an

interest in the Pacific Islands, the Japanese and North Americans are coming in smaller numbers. Arrivals in the Northern Marianas are down 14% so far this year, and those in Guam (the most important island desti-nation, apart from Hawaii – which although is part of the USA, is not included in the subregion) are down 6%. Arrivals in French Polynesia are up 11%, but on a very poor performance last year. Otherwise, it is only a few of the smaller destinations that are reporting sub-stantial increases.

OutlookThe perennial talk about the likelihood of an economic slowdown in Asia and the Pacific has intensified in recent months and the IMF is now predicting that real GDP growth will slacken from 8.0% in 2010 to 6.1% in 2011 and 6.5% in 2012. This is still a very substantial rate of growth and much of the slowdown is due to the earth-quake and tsunami in Japan. Expectations for tourism have also moderated, as indi-cated by the ratings provided by UNWTO’s Panel of Experts. In September, they gave a score for the previous four months of 107, down from 110 in May and 149 in January. For the next four months, they gave a score of 114, down from 142 in January but the same as in May. In other words, on both measures, the decline in the rat-ings came earlier this year, and did not persist during the middle months of the year.

Source: UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, Vol. 9, October 2011

● Arrivals in Hong Kong (China) are up 11%, with in-creases from mainland China balancing the declines from Japan. In Macao (+8%), there have been large double-digit increases from China, the Republic of Korea and Russia, but only modest increases from the USA, Europe and Hong Kong. Macao (China) now has 63 hotels and 31 guesthouses, with a total of 21,000 rooms – and more on the way. Average room occupancy in the first half of 2011 was 82% and aver-age length of stay 1.5 nights.

● Arrivals in the Republic of Korea increased by nearly 9% through the month of September, with double-digit increases from June: there have been plenty of diversions from Japan and much comment is be-ing made about the success of the ‘Korean Wave’ or ‘Hallyu’ (the marketing of music, video games, food, clothing and culture) and shopping tourism. The Won is also competitive against the rising Yuan Renminbi and the even stronger Yen. For example, the number of Chinese to the island of Jeju exceeded 411,000 through the month of September – more than in the whole of 2010 – thanks in part to the extension of visa-free stays by Chinese to 30 days.

● China has replaced Japan as the most important source market. It continues to relax its restrictions on travel to Taiwan, lengthening the permitted length of stay and allowing some FIT travel. Since 2008, when direct travel across the straits was first permitted, over two million visitors from the mainland have come to Taiwan.

The dynamic growth in South-East Asia continues apace, with almost all destinations sharing in this growth. Arrivals increased by 12% in the first eight months of 2011:● In Thailand, arrivals increased by 27% through the

first nine months. There has been a decline in book-ings from Japan and the Middle East, and poor figures from Europe and North America, but these are more than balanced by large increases from Russia, India, China, Australia and much of South-East Asia. How-ever, increased visa fees for Russians and Indians from October may well have a negative impact.

● The improved conditions in Thailand have had knock-on effects on arrivals in the Mekong subre-gion: Cambodia (+16%) mentions new air links to Singapore, Bangkok, Yangon and Vientiane, and Lao P.D.R. (+23%) the development of Luang Prabang and Pakse as major resorts. Vietnam (+16% through September) seems to be doing well in spite of a slack-ening in demand from Japan.

● Arrivals in Myanmar have been rising by 26% a year for the last three years as its international relations im-prove, but the numbers are still small – fewer than 400,000 a year.

● Formal figures for Malaysia (South-East Asia’s leading destination this year) are only available for January, but the Ministry of Tourism admits that international arrivals are declining, in spite of excellent air connec-tions. Preliminary figures suggest that, in the first half of 2011, arrivals from Singapore were down nearly 3% and those from Indonesia down 26% (attributed to improved connections to other parts of the subregion). Thailand showed only 1% growth; China was up 10%.

● The focus in Singapore (+15%) is still on its new ‘in-tegrated resorts’, Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands.

● Indonesia is prosperous and is placing a high priority on tourism development – especially in rural areas, for social reasons. However, international tourist arrivals so far this year (+8%) are slightly below the govern-ment’s target (+10%).

● Brunei has set a target for a 20% increase in arrivals this year. Royal Brunei restored services to Shanghai and introduced a new service to Melbourne earlier this year, and several major hotels have been, or are being, refurbished.

● Arrivals in the Philippines have been strong so far this year (+12%) after several years of slack. A currency pegged to the weak US dollar has helped.

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uct development and diversification, good governance and policy readjustment, raising public awareness, and innova-tive approach. As for the outlook for year 2011, UNWTO forecasted world tourism will grow to 4% to 5% and Asia and the Pacific will grow to 7% to 9%.

Mr. Wang Qing-sheng, Professor and Vice Dean of the Business School at Tianjin University of Commerce de-livered a lecture on Tourism Planning on 3 September. He opened his speech with the strong arguments that the quality and execution of tourism planning is an impor-tant standard to measure the level of regional economic development. In conclusion, he condensed his lecture into several keywords; ‘Contents of Tourism Planning,’ ‘Tour-ism System,’ ‘Analysis of RMP,’ ‘AVC Theory,’ ‘Environ-mental Impact Assessment (EIA),’ ‘Environmental Impact Statement (EIS),’ ‘Rural Tourism,’ ‘Trends in China.’ He added, “Tourism planning is a complex system. A good tourism planning must be the combination of the prod-uct, price, location, management technology and market,

and expectations of tourists, but the results should be able to attract matching investments.”

On the next day, lectures and discussions were contin-ued. Dr. Liang Zhi, Chief Professor and Deputy Dean of Business School, Tianjin University of Finance & Eco-nomics, delivered a lecture on Designing and Develop-ing Tourism Products. To explain how to design tourism products to attract Chinese tourists, he started his speech with the definition of tourism products. The classification of tourism products was another crucial part of the presen-tation. Dr. Liang Zhi approached the classification of tour-ism products by geographical factors, distance of journey, travel purpose, travel mode, and the travel organization and/or price composition. He also supplemented factors affecting tourism product designing. The factors were as follows: Resources, Facilities and Service, Consumers of the Target Market, Total Need of the Target Market, Con-sumers’ Demand, Affordability of Consumers, Competi-tion, Technology and Cost Return Analysis.

23rd Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for South Asia and the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific

The UNWTO, in collaboration with the Municipal Government of Tianjin, China organized a training pro-gram on Tourism Marketing in Tianjin from 31 August - 07 September, 2011.

The training program was an integral part of the UN-WTO capacity building initiative for its member states which include the annual Practicum and the UNWTO Executive Training Program, among others. The UN-WTO/Tianjin Training Program is a new endeavor to provide training and share technical know-how amongst members. The Tianjin Program was the first trial of its kind, and was sponsored by the Tianjin Municipal Gov-ernment based on the agreement signed between UN-WTO and Tianjin in 2010.

On 1 September, a lecture on China Tourism Develop-ment and its Cultural and Ecological Considerations was delivered by Mr. Bai Changhong, Dean of Tourism and Service College, Nankai University.

At the Opening Ceremony held on 2 September, Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General offered the Opening Re-marks extending his warmest greetings to the Tianjin Mu-nicipal Government and attendees. During the program, in-depth presentations, lectures and discussions delivered by remarkable instructors and experts were made. Mr. Li Tianyuan, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Tourism and Service College of Nankai University, delivered a lec-ture on the tourism marketing entitled, “Marketing Plan-ning in Travel and Tourism.”

Later, Mr. Xu Jing, Regional Programme Director for Asia and the Pacific, UNWTO, presented “Tourism Trends, Assessment and a Glimpse of UNWTO.” He summarized the inbound tourism statistics which marked approximately 935 million worldwide and 204 million for Asia and the Pacific in year 2010. He also assessed tourism in Asia. Since the global economic crisis in 2008, Asia tour-ism has been leading the recovery process. According to his analysis, Asia excelled in many qualitative aspects such as professional marketing, infrastructure development, prod-


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Following the lecture and discussion on the topic ad-dressed by Dr. Liang Zhi, Jiang Yiyi, Researcher of Inter-national Tourism Research Institute delivered a lecture re-garding Marketing and Promotion of China’s Outbound Tourism. She divided her presentation into three sections. The first section of the lecture was about China and the Development of the Outbound Chinese Traveler. Part two was devoted to the Main Features of China’s Outbound Tourism Market in 2010. At the end of her lecture, sub-topics, including “Ads and Marketing,” “Ads and Prod-ucts,” “Ads and Sales Channels,” and “Ads and Promotion” related to the marketing and promotion were discussed. Later on, Dr. Zhengying Lu, Vice Professor and Dean of Tourism Department of Tianjin University of Finance &

Economics addressed a lecture on Tourism Advertisement and Communication Tactics. While he gave his lecture, many different and meaningful case studies of China were shared.

The aim of this training program was to provide lat-est information of market trends for the Asia and Pacific Region, with special emphasis on the Chinese outbound market by leading experts. Invitees were all tourism mar-keting officials from the Asia-Pacific region, and the train-ing program was a platform for the invitees to share their experiences and discuss further enhancement on tourism marketing strategy.

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region. He also addressed that 22-44% of the growth vol-ume comes from source markets such as Sri Lanka, Vi-etnam, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and Macau. He said that the increase of total annual growth rate in a short-term tourism outlook pro-jected in 2013 is derived from the middle class and the concentrated of wealth by a small number of individuals.

Dr. Nalaka Harshajeewa Godahewa from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority presented about Sri Lanka with ‘Marketing and Emerging Tourism Destina-tion in Asia’. He spoke of the case of Sri Lanka in relation to the topic. He suggested 10 major global tourism trends and introduced Sri Lanka as authentic, compact and di-verse with the slogan ‘8 wonderful experiences in 8 won-derful days’ as a case of tourism marketing in emerging destinations.

Mr. Jae-Kyung Lee from the Korea Tourism Organi-zation introduced the impact of the ‘Korean Wave’ as a tourism marketing tool. He shared that the ‘Korean Wave’ roots started from Korea to North America, and explained its impact towards the growth rate of inbound tourists.

The forum was successfully held with more than 180 participants from twenty countries in Asia and the Pacific region.

destinations and tourism products online. He emphasized that destinations must look at their online brand health, reputation and product promotion.

Professor Haiyang Song, School of Hotel and Tourism Management in Hong Kong Polytechnic University, pre-sented ‘New Tourism Product Development’ and stressed on ‘e-Tourism’. Online tourism related companies expand its field from a simple reservation service to a suggestion and preview and reviews. He addressed on new product development from an e-tourism perspective.

Plenary SessionPlenary session was organized for the second day with

renowned international speakers from the tourism sector. ‘UNWTO Long-term Outlook: Tourism Towards 2030’ was presented by Mr. Xu Jing. As he mentioned during the technical session, it is assumed that emerging econo-mies will surpass advanced economies by 2015. Asia and the Pacific tourism market will constantly grow and North East Asia will be the most visited region in 2030 as fore-casted by UNWTO.

Short-term forecast in the tourism industry was present-ed by Mr. Stuart Lloyd, Senior Director of Marketing & Membership in PATA. By 2013, Mr. Stuart Lloyd stated, nearly 7% growth was forecasted for Asia and the Pacific

Guilin, China, 26-28 October, 2011● To discuss the prospects of utilizing technology to

promote destinations, businesses, and visitor experience.

Technical SessionA technical session, held on the first day of the forum

aimed to provide practitioners and academics opportunity to exchange views and perspectives on innovation and di-versification in tourism. Participants additionally discussed new product development for emerging markets, and the utilization of technology to promote destinations and en-hance businesses.

Three speakers presented on each of these issues. Mr. Xu Jing, Director of the Regional Programme for Asia and the Pacific, UNWTO, gave a speech on ‘Tourism Trends and Emerging Markets’. He said that although advanced economics driven by emerging destination is slowly descending, emerging economies is massively increasing. Moreover, destination marketing should be emerged within the region.

Dr. Matthew McDougall, CEO and Founder of Sintech, China, presented ‘Technology in Tourism’. He mentioned that the social media market in tourism is rapidly growing. Potential tourists listen, look, read and talk about tourism

The 5th UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook was held in Guilin, China on 26-28 Octo-ber 2011. The forum was jointly organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), hosted by Guilin Municipal People’s Government and in collaboration with Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The forum provided a platform for governments, indus-try and academics to share information, to analyze global trends and the broader environment impacting on tour-ism, and to map out the appropriate course of actions. Within the theme of ‘innovation and diversification’, the forum aimed at achieving the following objectives:●To share state-of-the-art research, practices and per-

spectives on innovation and diversification in new product development and in the creation of quality tourist experience at different scales or in different contexts.

●To analyse global and regional tourism trends with a focus on emerging markets with high potentials of growth.

●To exchange views and share experiences in tourism recovery for destinations after crises and/or disasters.


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tion of wealth and promoting the natural and cultural heritage of ecotourism sites were discussed.

Ecotourism Business SeminarThe Business seminar for ecotourism entrepreneurs

was held under the theme of ‘How to survive your small scale ecotourism business?’ Since eco-tour operator busi-ness models require technical skills, the objective of this session was to provide technical expertise for marketing ecotourism products. Several in-depth discussions on the topic of understanding eco-tourists’ buying behavior, strengthening product development, diversifying prod-ucts and generating forward business were addressed.

Ecotourism Research SymposiumEcotourism research symposium provided the platform

for academic scholars to present recent research on best

practices along with case examples evidenced by schol-arly research.

1st Ministerial Round Table on EcotourismTourism, Environment, Natural Resources Ministers

along with senior government officials, industry lead-ers, community leaders, conservationists and leading investors shared their respective insights on ecotourism development and growth, and to promote multilateral collaboration in the region and to gather momentum from past successes towards the advancement of ecotour-ism in Asia and the Pacific. The Round Table, together with shared input from conference delegates under the theme “Charting the Future of Ecotourism in Asia” con-cluded the event with the “Sihanoukville Declaration on Ecotourism”.

marketing value chain with entrepreneurs, eco-tour operators, NGOs and eco-lodge owners. This session focused on the development of regional and domestic markets in ecotourism, learning from leaders in destina-tion positioning, e-marketing, embracing social media and developing virtual communities, exploring success-ful branding of destinations, evaluating accreditations and mandating green certification for local authorities and industry players. With the emphasis of local com-munity challenges and success stories, the third session sought ways to impede the negative impacts of tourism, increase its positive contribution facets such as rural area development, community based tourism cooperatives and providing the necessary capacity building to develop successful local enterprises that meets sustainable tourism objectives.

‘Public-private-people partnerships’ was discussed dur-ing the fourth session with public sector administrators, entrepreneurs, NGOs and communities. Successful recipes for sustainable collaboration, such as, working towards partnerships and sharing resources, justifying public funding for rural development and value manage-ment of developmental policies, narrowing urban-rural economic divide, to inculcate united and caring societies through tourism, contributing to sustainable distribu-

Charting the Future of Ecotourism in AsiaCambodia, 3-5 October 2011

To deliberate on the future of ecotourism in Asia, the 3rd World Ecotourism Conference was held from 3 - 5 October, 2011 in Cambodia. The Government of Cambodia in collaboration with the UNWTO and Asia Pacific Ecotourism Society (APES), the conference in Sihanoukville, Cambodia Bay, attracted a gathering 250 members of ecotourism fraternity. Comprised at the event was a Ministerial Round Table on Ecotourism, an Ecotourism Research Symposium, Plenary Sessions and Business Networking Appointments were programs or-ganized during the conference.

Plenary SessionsThe first plenary session mainly focused on sustainable

tourism and roadmaps. With policy makers, public sec-tor administrators, academics and NGOs, this session explored options to reduce environmental impact by use of renewable sources, developing measurable bench-marks, enforcing the power of place and localization, mainstreaming ecotourism and improving tourism’s contribution to sustainable development, environmental conservation and nation building.

The second session led to market development and


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[Brief News] Dr. Chulwon Kim’s visit to the UN-WTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific

Dr. Chulwon Kim, chiefeditor of UNWTO Asia Pa-cific Newsletter(Dean of the College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University) made his first visit to the UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific on 16 January, 2012 accom-panied by Mr. Jung-Ho Suh, Research Assistant from Kyung Hee University.

Dr. Kim in his role as Chief Editor of the UNWTO Asia Pacific Newsletter has demonstrated strong sup-port for the Regional Support Office. The trip was ar-ranged for a means to maintain continued cooperation and to exchange and discuss current issues related to tourism in Japan.

Mr. Yuichiro Honda, Chief of the UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific, Mr. Kazuo Ichikawa, Executive Director, and Ms. Junko Yoshida, Staff Member, discussed the ongoing initiatives to revi-talize tourism in Japan following last year’s catastrophic earthquake, along with future plans for the Regional Support Office. The Office stressed the importance the Silk Road initiative, including its maritime routes; com-ment later echoed by Dr. Kim who closed the meeting by suggesting future research collaboration with Kyung Hee University.

(From left) UNWTO Secretary-General, Mr. CHOE Kwang-sik, Min-ister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, UN Special advisor to the UN Secretary-General

The Maritime Silk Road Poster Exhibition was held in Osaka, Japan from 4 January - 2 February, 2012.

The exhibition shared spotlight among member coun-tries of the maritime Silk Road with the aim of promot-ing tourism in these destinations under the Silk Road brand. A total of sixteen countries including Brunei, China, Croatia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Ja-pan, Korea, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Turkey were represented.

At the exhibition, a variety of tourism posters and related brochures were displayed, highlighting each country’s respective attractions. The venue for the event was located at a boat terminal adjacent to a river where trade between merchants and ships was historically con-ducted, helping to achieve a representative effect of past commerce.

Maritime Silk Road Poster Exhibition

Dr. Chulwon Kim, Chief Editor of UNWTO Asia Pacific Newsletter visited to the UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Progress on the Maritime Silk Road The UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and

the Pacific is undertaking study and research on the maritime routes of the Silk Road to promote tourism along the Silk Road routes. The regional support office will contact maritime Silk Road related countries to ob-tain details and deliver updates through this newsletters. Each country’s involvement is crucial for the success of this initiative successful. The regional support office looks forward to working with you in 2012.

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[About the Leaders for Tourism Campaign]

In spite of tourism’s growing relevance and proven contribution to GDP (3% to 5% worldwide), jobs (7% to 8% of all jobs) and exports (30% of the world’s exports of services), travel and tourism still regretfully lacks due political and economic recognition.

In this framework, the UNWTO and WTTC have decided to join hands in their common goal of main-streaming Travel and Tourism in the global agenda in the form of a “Global Leaders for Tourism Cam-paign”. The objective is to position tourism as a driver of economic growth and development, and thus a priority in the global agenda.

The UNWTO and WTTC will present an Open Letter to Heads of State and Government worldwide, highlighting the importance of travel and tourism. In turn, Heads of State and Government will accept this letter in acknowledgement of the relevance of travel and tourism in facing today’s global challenges.

On behalf of the Chinese Government, Mr. Wang accepted an Open Letter stressing the importance of Travel and Tourism to global growth and development, presented by UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai and WTTC Vice Chairman, Jean Claude Baumgarten.

Mr. Wang highlighted the link between tourism and international and national economic development, as well as understanding and stability worldwide, and committed China to “take an active part in the UN-WTO/WTTC initiative to promote tourism around the world”.

“In 2009, China declared tourism a strategic pillar for its national economy and policy,” said Mr. Rifai. “Now in 2011, the country is once again demonstrating its commitment to put tourism at the center of economic growth and development. We are delighted that Chi-

na, one of the world’s fastest growing economies and a leader in the tourism sector, has joined this campaign”.

David Scowsill, President & CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said: “China’s commit-ment to tourism was underlined this year with the dec-laration of the National Tourism Day of China. Signing the Open Letter reiterates this long term commitment and demonstrates China’s leadership role in the Travel and Tourism industry. The government truly under-stands tourism’s impact on job creation and the positive economic impact contributed to global GDP”. China received 56 million international tourists in 2010, generating USD 46 billion in international tourism receipts. China is also the world’s third biggest source market, with Chinese outbound tourists spending around USD 55 billion in 2010.

China Joining UNWTO/WTTC Leaders for Tourism Campaign

“The Chinese Government is increasingly conscious of the role that tourism plays in socio-economic development and will double its efforts in tourism,” said Chi-nese Vice-Premier, Wang Qishan, on joining the UNWTO/WTTC Global Leaders for Tourism Campaign (Beijing, China, 1 September 2011).

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Risk Management and Recovery Plan in Tour-ism Sector Toward Recent Floods in Bangkok

Regarding the recovery plan for the tourism sector in Thailand, numerous organizations, for example, the Tour-ism Authority of Thailand (TAT), have delivered a pro-posal for tourism recovery. Included in the proposal is a plan to manage affected areas, support MICE and related domestic packaging along with providing reimbursements and tax deductions to flood-affected entrepreneurs and MICE organizers. In addition, there is a plan for improved compensation and collaboration with tour agencies to fos-ter improved tourism confidence. This was initiated when TAT invited more than 350 travel agents and journalists from around the world to bear witness themselves to the improvements being made. As part of the recovery cam-paign, “Beautiful Thailand”, a Mega Fam Trip was hosted from 6 - 18 December 2011. The event featured a tour across different parts of the kingdom in order to send the message back to their clients, readers, viewers and followers that Thai-land was back to normal and ready to receive visitors.

As an ongoing initiative put together by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS), the Strategic Plan of Coop-erating in Thailand’s Tourism Crisis management (2011-

2015) has been formally compiled and classified under the following four main strategies:1. Introductory preparation strategy – pre-crisis training,

public relations, and local cooperation. 2. Readiness strategy for crisis protocol. 3. Management strategy – network recovery.4. General recovery strategy as follows:4.1 Accelerate status updates to provide a single unified

message via TAT’s website.4.2 Create voluntary tourism activities.4.3 Promote MICE markets for the governmental organi-

zations to arrange meetings or exhibitions in the country, and compensate for the entrepreneurs who received the impact of the floods, as well as increase the rate of tax re-duction to the MICE entrepreneurs as of 300 percent.

4.4 Build the confidence among big travel agencies, es-pecially the operation of the Suvarnabhumi Airport together with facilitating the transportation system to the tourists who would like to transfer domestic flights to other provinces in Thailand. Additionally, have in-surance for tourists affected by the floods or after the floods temporarily.

Future Plan of Tourism Sector in ThailandEffective cooperation from all organizations concerned - both governmental and private sectors, is needed for the investments on the development of Thailand’s tourism industries in terms of promoting tourism and sports in the positive ways, particular value of money, and good quality. It is integral that the government have a clear platform of tour-ism investment promotion, and take it into concrete action towards further developing tourism at an international level.

General Issues in Thai Tourism Role of Tourism in 2012

Tourism is a major driver of job creation, poverty eradi-cation, socio – economic development and people – to – people contact in respective countries. The sector itself is particularly important as a source of export revenue, con-tributing 30% of the world’s service exports, amounting to USD 1 trillion a year and 45% of the total services exports in developing countries, rendering it an important driver of growth in the global economy. Moreover, the low - car-bon development of sustainable models of transport are becoming increasingly of issue when considering increased taxing imposed on international travel in a number of Euro-pean countries. These unilateral taxes and the basis for its cal-culation are inherently discriminatory favouring short flights over long haul travel; and more specifically, that some taxes discriminate against long – haul destinations through so – called ‘distance banding’ based on distances to capital cities.

OverviewThailand’s labour market for hospitality and tourism sec-

tors are very important for job creation and income. How-ever, Thai labour still occupies a disadvantage in terms of language proficiency compared to its ASEAN neighbors, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Second language

fluency across Thai workers, for the majority, is limited to major tourist destinations; particularly, Bankok. The Thai Lace is not without its advantages, however. They are the uniqueness of Thai hospitality and the genuine smile and sincerity of its people. Additional advantages for Thailand Tourism are the cost of travel, food and accommoda-tion throughout the country amidst the country’s natural beauty – serving a tremendous opportunity for the devel-opment of new categories of niche tourism, such as eco - tourism, medical tourism, amongst others.

Ecotourism, when marketed and managed effectively, acts to motivate people towards a consciousness of natural conservation. Additionally, tourists have an oppoprunity to learn, touch, and experience with the nature directly, creating positive environmental ethics and participation in the community of the people. Common eco-tourism sites can include national parks, forest parks, and wildlife sanc-tuaries. Some more recent trends in ecotourism are travel to remote forests, bird watching, and photography.

Medical Tourism is a high value service of the tourism in-dustry and will increase more when connecting to tourism. Medical tourism in Thailand is popular among foreign pa-tients; especially tourists from Middle Eastern countries, and is gaining to become a central medical tourism hub in Asia due to state-of-the-art equipment, professional doc-tors, reasonable pricing, and excellent hospitality. Apart from the mentioned factors, Thailand is the destination of tourists around the world would like to visit because Thai-land has many tourism destinations that are abundant, as well as beautiful natural resources such as sea, moutains and charming culture, food, entertainment, shopping, and etc. Therefore, it is appropriate for foreign patients to take their opportunities to travel after treatment.

Dialogue with Minister of Tourism and Sports of ThailandH.E. Mr. Chumpol SILAPA-ARCHA,

To enrich contents of the article, Mrs. Thanitta Savetsilla Maneechote, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports and Dr. Chulwon Kim, Chief Editor of UN-WTO Asia Pacific Newsletter had a meeting on current issues of tourism in Thailand.

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Mr. Sukhumbhand Paribatra declared in mid-Decem-ber that flood waters in the capital had finally receded and that Bangkok Metropolitan Administration officials had collected 645 thousand tons of garbage from October 15 to December 22. This was achieved in part due to the tre-mendous efforts of nearly 4,000 volunteers and city of-ficials who have aided in speeding up recovery.

Interviews with Tourists Regarding Flood The Thailand Tourism Update website provides short

interviews with visitors to Bangkok regarding the flood disaster. They are satisfied with the current situation in the city. Interviewees mentioned that it is safe and clean and there is no obstruction to travel and sightseeing.

Ms. Ursula Richard from South Africa said, “We have been seeing lots of temples during our visit last 2 days. Yeah we have heard news about the flood. We then check from internet about things and we came here and found out that everything is fine. No, that doesn’t affect our plan at all. We are going to Chiang Mai by train. Do come to Thailand, you will enjoy.”

Mr. Joo-Cheang Tham and Mrs. Paula Tham from Australia said, “Travelling is easy and fine using skytrain, underground train and today boat. It was great travelling around. Yes, we saw the news about flood before we came but we decided to come and everything was absolutely fine. We are flying to Chiang Mai and continue with green

bus to Chiang Rai. Nothing to worry about, people here always give you assistance.”

References:

UNWTO Media

<http://media.unwto.org/en/news/2011-11-02/statement-

ministry-tourism-and-sports-current-situation-floods-thailand>

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)

<http://www.tatnews.org/latest_update/detail.asp?id=5788>

Travelers Interviews

<http://www.thailandtourismupdate.com/TravelersInte

rviews/79?cat=12#id1122>

The Nation. 91% of flood-hit areas back to normal: Witthaya.

<www.nationmultimedia.com/national/91-of-flood-hit-

areas-back-to-normal-Witthaya-30172606.html>

The Nation. Sukhumbhand declares Bangkok is dry.

<http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Sukhumb-

hand-declares-Bangkok-is-dry-30172578.html>

CNN. Thai floods crisis: Updated info for tourists.

<http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/life/thailand-floods-updated-

info-tourists-883113>

The Worst Floods in ThailandBangkok, Thailand, one of the world’s leading tourist

destinations was left devastated following one of the na-tion’s worst ever storms affecting the Gulf of Thailand. The storms strongest-hit provinces were the Central Plains which includes the Chao Phraya River, low-lying agricul-tural areas, the ancient capital of Ayutthaya and key tourist destinations including Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Loei.

Thailand’s Flood Relief Operations Command (FROC) acted in accordance with established protocol to mitigate damage from the storm. The Tourism Authority of Thai-land (TAT) continuously updated the flood situation as well as a full list of closed attractions on their website and the TAT Information Line to check local conditions. TAT advised that “tourists planning to travel to the provinces af-fected by the floods are advised to check the latest weather forecasts for their destination and confirm arrangements with the transportation providers with which they will be traveling.”

Thailand Government’s Statement on Situation of Floods

A statement from Ministry of Tourism and Sports on the current situation of floods was posted on UNWTO Website to provide updates on the current status of inter-national airports.

Bangkok Clean- up OperationIn efforts to prevent further incidents related to flooding

in the future, Bangkok governor, Mr. Sukhumbhand Pari-batra, stated that the city needed to learn from the disaster saying, “It’s a wakeup call. We need to take a hard look at the problems that may arise from climate change and take a long-term perspective on how to deal with them.” He proposed more investment in flood mitigation and pre-vention, namely construction of more retention ponds, drainage tunnels and pumping stations. “It will cost a lot of money, but I don’t think there is any other way unless we change our conceptual approach and allow some areas to be flooded during the flood season.”

Thailand Tourism Recovery Plan

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Traditional Folk Village and a Step forward Green Tourism Revitalizing the River

A tour of the Andong Hahoe (a river) Folk Village, where ancestors of the “Ryu’ fam-ily have resided for over six hundred years, offered another genuine Korean experience. The Andong Hahoe and Yangdong Folk Village (mentioned previously), both have been designated UNESCO World Herit-age Sites in 2010, and display their charm to guests visiting Korea.

A later tour, organized by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, featured a tour of the Sangju Reservoir located on the upper stream of the Nakdong River. The reservoir is a multi-purpose and eco-friend-ly project. Evidence of its blend of utility and beauty was experienced by representa-tive teams from 30 countries along with members of domestic and foreign press.

Under the backdrop of Gyeongju’s beautiful natural scen-ery and ancient landmarks, the 19th UNWTO General Assembly successfully hosted over 800 participants from 125 different countries. Additional to assembly business matters, special events were organized showcasing Korean history and culture.

Experience of the History Museum Without Roof

Tour programs were organized including a tour of Seok-guram, Bulguksa, Kirimsa temple, Cheomseongdae, the Gyeongju National Museum and Yangdong Folk Village. At the Gyeongju National Museum and Cheomseongdae tour stops, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism provided a short presentation, sharing his knowledge of the region as a history professor.

Pine Tree Artist Exhibition and Globally Traditional Hanbok Designer Show

Prior to the Dinner for Heads of Delegation hosted by the Governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do on 11 October, the Bae Bien-U Exhibition and Lee Young-Hee Hanbok (Ko-rean traditional dress) fashion show at the Art Sonje Mu-seum were held.

Bae Bien-U, a renowned photographer whose works

have been highlighted on the poster of Salzburg 2010 (a great honor for artists), is renowned for his devotion to modern landscape arts highlighting natural aesthetics and beauty, reflecting and inspiring traditional Korean senti-ments.

Lee Young-Hee, a highly decorated designer of haute couture, hosted a fashion show representing of Korean royal customs and dress evolving through seasonal chang-es. Making special attendance at the event was the Gover-nor of Gyeongsangbuk-do, who welcomed guests while dressed in a colorful blue hanbok designed by Ms. Lee.

Event Review: 19th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly – Special Events

Figure 2 Yangdong Folk Village

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Services Management Research Center, Kyung Hee Uni-versity. During his presentation, Dr. Jung emphasized the importance of growing global healthcare demand. He also mentioned that global healthcare is one of the promis-ing industries for the future as a growth engine industry. Later, panel discussion under the agenda of “The Col-laboration of Government, Industry and Studies on the Medical Tourism and Study Plan for the Medical Tourism” followed. Dr. Ick-Keun Ok, President of the Tourism Sci-ences Society of Korea, chaired the session as a moderator. Mr. Soo Nam Jin, Chief of the Department of Medical Tourism, Korea Tourism Organization, Dr. William C. Hunter, Professor of Kyung Hee University, and Dr. Jin Won Mok from Yonsei University shared their point of views as panelists.

The seminar proved to be a successful venue for ex-changing the latest information platform for enhanced collaboration amongst stakeholders in this emerging tourism segment.

ics and Management, Dresden University of Technology, Germany, presented “Medical Tourism and Travel”, com-prising of German cases of medical tourism experiences.

The second presentation, “Issues and Prospects of Global Healthcare as a Future Growth Engine Industry in Ko-rea”, was delivered by Dr. Kee Taig Jung, MBA Professor of Health Services Management and Director of Health

An International Seminar for Medical Tourism was held at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea on 29 Novem-ber, 2011. The seminar, hosted by the College of Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University and the Center for Tourism Industry Research, Kyung Hee University, was attended by a great number of scholars, experts, practitioners and government officials from the tourism industry.

“Classified under Special Interest Tourism (SIT), Medi-cal tourism is a high value-added tourism product which has caught the attention of both of the public and private sector”, said Dr. Chulwon Kim, Dean of College Hotel and Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, in his opening remarks. He added, “Noticing its potential of growth, the Korean government has started to boost mar-keting promotion on medical tourism and supports the market by investing budget and making policies.”

Dr. Walter Freyer and Dr. Kee Taig Jung, pioneers in Medical Tourism, delivered in-depth presentations and shared their insight. Dr. Freyer, Chair of Tourism Econom-

International Seminar for Medical Tourism

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Introduction Cruise tourism now encompasses a wide range of ac-tivities for travelers in addition to its traditional func-tion of providing transport and accommodation. Inter-continental and long distance cruises are now supplied with a variety of facilities and amenities commonly made available at resort destinations, making sea travel much more enjoyable and comfortable for travelers. The enor-mous scale of today’s cruise ships along with the range of on-board activities and amenities expands parameters for what defines a resort experience. Cruise tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing tourist activities. Asia and the Pacific, with a combined

Destinations: Global Expansion of the Cruise Experience Cruise tourists thoroughly concern the zones in which cruise lines operate. The time of year and the climate conditions are key factors in selecting a zone as of select-ing a destination on land. The Caribbean remains the leading zone in cruise tourism especially during the win-ter winter period. Currently, the most popular cruise destinations are the Caribbean and the Bahamas, Mediterranean Atlantic Islands and Northern Europe. The Asia Pacific Region continues to remain a rare destination region for cruise tourism. The volume of cruise tourists is constantly in-

growth rate of 90% from 2001-2004, brings its total number of cruise passengers to nearly 800,000 and mar-ket share of 6%. This impressive growth rate contributes to the speculation that the 13 million cruise passengers recorded in 2004 are expected to increase to 25 million by 2015 worldwide. However, this being said, the Asia Pacific market share is minute and cruise tourism remains in the product-intro-duction phase. This trend is unlikely to change any time soon, as the barriers to entry to the market are increas-ingly high and many Asian destinations adequate port infrastructure.

Special Report:

Cruise TourismCurrent Situation

and Trends in Asia and the Pacific

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As shown in the Figure 3, the product life cycles for Asia, Europe and North America regions with greatest demand still lie at the introductory or growth stage of the curve, depending on the region.

Relationship Between Cruise Lines and Destinations Cruise tourism has come to be regarded as “marine re-sorts”, and competes with traditionally marketed land-locked resorts, which has come to complicate the rela-tionship between cruise lines and destinations. While significant overlap exists, some considerations to be ac-counted for are the following:● Not all cruise ships are marine resorts (e.g. those for

adventure, sailing, or other highly specialized cruises).● Not all demand is equal (European demand is better

informed; Asian consumers like to purchase brand-name products).

● Not all regions are equal: destinations play a larger role in the Mediterranean than in the other major region, the Caribbean.

● Not all destinations are equal. A small island is one thing; a city with a vast hinterland is another.

The effects of a cruise on its destination are significant, ranging from general spending or economic fallout to di-rect competition with land-based accommodation. The general trend of cruise tourism is for cruise lines to in-crease the number of on-board sources of income, such as art auctions, ice skating, paid restaurants, computer golf courses, satellite telephones in passenger staterooms, internet and e-mail access, etc.

Product in Asia and the Pacific The Asia and the Pacific market has been traditionally divided into four segments: South Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Philippines,

Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand), Far East (Japan, Republic of Korea, Democratic People’s Repub-lic of Korea and China), and Trans Pacific (Hawaiian Is-lands, Island of Guam, Fiji, French Polynesia). The larg-est, in terms of traffic, is the South Pacific, followed by Southeast Asia. The Japanese market has been frozen for many years, but there are now signs of improvement, coinciding with a change in the economic cycle. The Australasia market continues to grow. The real potential of Asia and the Pacific market is in selling products designed by Asians for Asians, since cruise demand forecasts for 2020 among residents of this region are quite promising. Markets should consider that Asians have less holiday time than Europeans. Singapore is one of the fastest growing ports in the world and the largest in Asia, although Hong Kong, China, is starting to give it competition. There are prospects for a new Carnival product and it is expected that other major cruise lines will also dedicate more cruises to the region in the years ahead. China, with the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, expected to attract 3 million cruise passengers. Star Cruises is the only cruise line participating in this market. The principal ports are Xiamen and Shanghai. Xiamen has completed a cruise terminal with two berths, and has formed part of “Inter-national Cruise City”. Shanghai began plans for a new terminal in 2004. The port is expected to attract 500,000 cruise passengers and generate US$ 200 million in in-come for the local economy. The Australian government commissioned a report in 2005 for the development of the cruise tourism industry in the Asia-Pacific region. This suggested that a strategy outlined for the so-called “Action Plan for the Develop-ment of Australia-Pacific Cruise”. The cruise segment in Australasian regions, New Zealand and New Caledonia, is also on the rise.

Cruise Lines Operating in the Asian Outbound Market According to the UNWTO, the East Asia and Pacific Region has seen fast growth. Between 1995 and 2020, international tourism is expected to grow at an annual cumulative rate of 6.5%. In “Tourism: Panorama 2020” UNWTO says “there are three key development in the area of transport”. Japan The Japanese tend to travel on Japanese cruises for cul-tural and linguistic reasons. The Japanese cruise market got started in 1980s based on the “study tour” product characterized Japanese cruise market: incentive and train-ing trips, on which employees often share staterooms with up to four beds. NYK Cruises belongs to the world’s largest shipping lines. “Asuka” was the first Japanese cruise ship to cir-cumvent the globe in 1996. Mitsui OSK Passenger Line has two ships: “Fuji Maru” and “Nippon Maru”, both offering cruises through Southeast Asia and around the world. Japan Cruise Line is a joint venture between all ferry ship companies in Japan. Its fleet consists of the “Pacific Venus”, marketed for individuals and it navigates Alaska, Australia and Southeast Asia.

Republic of Korea The Korean market is limited by the same cultural and linguistic constraints as the Japanese market. The key op-erator in the Republic of Korea is Hyundai Merchant Marine, following the failure of a prior initiative with Carnival. Hyundai operates three ships: “Pongane”, “Kumgang”, and “Hyundai Pungak”. They were used for three-day cruises to Mt. Kumgang in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

creasing over years, and therefore, cruise lines need desti-nations in new regions. Weather and seasonality are key factors of cruise line de-cision making. The reason why the Caribbean and Medi-terranean are popular is that these zones are sunny during the northern Hemisphere’s winter and therefore offer a suitable substitute. For this reason, Australasia, the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean can be new cruise lines in Asia and the Pacific region.

Cruise Tourism Business Segmentation

Two segments are particularly large in specialization in terms of itineraries and type of ships. They are cruises for families with children, and thematic cruises. Thematic cruises are centered on various educational themes and/or recreational activities including wine tasting, cinema, golf, etc. Another growing specialized cruise is cultural cruises, where specialists in various fields host lectures and presentations en route to the sites to be visited at each destination, and business convention and incentive travel.

As cruise tourism has increased, the market has evolved into four main segments: “luxury”, “premium”, “con-temporary” and “budget”. The fastest growing sector is the “contemporary” or large scale consumption segment, followed by premium. Between 2006 and 2010, nearly 70% of the additional capacity went to the two segments and there were no orders for ship construction in the “luxury” segment. This trend makes the cruise segment move up to the scale for resorts in general.

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addition to increased operation and expansion of flight capacity of low-cost airlines has contributed significantly to the increase in international tourist arrivals to Vietnam in recent years. In 2011, Vietnam received over six mil-lion international arrivals and served 30 million domestic tourists and created tourism generated revenues of USD 6.5 billion. The performance of the tourism sector has be-come one of the highlights of Vietnam’s economy amidst the global economic downturn.

Following the success of 2011, in 2012, Vietnam tour-ism will continue to synchronize product development activities, improve the quality of tourism services, increase investment and tourism promotion based on the orienta-tion of Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy 2011 – 2020, Vision 2030, which has recently been approved by the Government. A series of major tourism events in 2012 such as Da Lat Flower Festival, the National Year of Tour-ism North Central Coast - Hue 2012, the International Fireworks Festival in Da Nang, and the International Travel Expo ITE in Ho Chi Minh City will pursue the re-alization of the country’s target of 6.5 million international arrivals, 32 million domestic tourists and 7.5 USD billion in 2012.

singing from Phu Tho province; two World Documentary Heritages, Stellar of Doctors in the Temple of Literature Van Mieu and Woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty. Of particular mention, Ha Long Bay, one of Vietnam’s World Natural Heritage Sites has recently been voted as one of the new seven natural wonders of the world adding further acclamation to the country’s tourism potential.

Along with the development of a vibrant economy, Viet-nam has specialized in developing various types of tourism products and attractions including as beach and island, cultural and heritage-based, ecotourism, festival and reli-gious, MICE, and village-based tourism. The tourism in-frastructure boasts 13,000 accommodation establishments with 265,000 rooms comprising 48 five star hotels, 126 four star hotels and 273 three star hotels and high qual-ity resorts and complexes; 960 tour operators and travel agents dealing with international travel and thousands of companies servicing domestic travel; and 8,800 tourist guides. Every year, Vietnam receives millions of interna-tional tourists through international airports at big tour-ist centers, 12 ports and international border checkpoints with Laos, Cambodia and China. The visa exemption scheme for eight ASEAN countries, along with Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Korea, and Russia in

water puppetry, Ca Tru singing, Quan Ho folk songs, Hue royal court music, Tay Nguyen gongs remain alive and in-grained in its dynamic culture. Visitors will really feel the enthusiasm and warm hospitality of the Vietnamese peo-ple as well as the unique traditions of the different ethnic groups living together harmoniously. Hosted throughout the year are an abundance of cultural festivals, including the celebration of King Hung’s anniversary, the festival of Giong Temple, the Lunar New Year celebrations and other cultural festivals and events.

Vietnam is the proud host of a total of 15 World Herit-age Sites recognized by UNESCO, including two World Natural Heritage Sites, Ha Long Bay and Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park; five World Cultural Heritage Sites, the Citadel of the Ho Dynasty, My Son Sanctuary, Hoi An Ancient Town, Hue Ancient Capital, Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Ha Noi; six Intangible Cultural Heritages, Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs, the space of gong culture in the Central Highlands, Ca Tru singing, Hue royal court music, Giong festival at Phu Dong and Soc temples, Xoan

Vietnam, located in the heart of South East Asia, has a tropical monsoon climate with four distinct seasons. Viet-nam occupies an area of 331,000 km2 and is bordered in the North by China, in the West by Laos and Cambodia , and in the Southeast is its East Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Vietnam has a population of more than 87 million people comprising 54 ethnic groups. The country’s beautiful land-scape and its bold culture offer great potential for tourism.

Travelers across the country will experience majestic mountain ranges, long sandy beaches, caves, islands, min-eral water springs, and rare animal species. Vietnam, with over 3,200 km of coastlines, is renowned for its beautiful beaches such as Da Nang, selected as one of the six most beautiful beaches in the world by Forbes Magazine, and Ha Long Bay and Nha Trang which are recognized as being among the world’s most beautiful gulfs.

Visitors to Vietnam will also be directly exposed to the country’s culture as evidenced through its art, food, music, architecture and crafts. Traditional ethnic art forms such as

Destination Report: Vietnam Tourism

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A common goal of both of public and private sectors in all countries is to create sustainable tourism profit. This is achieved optimally by increasing inbound tour-ism yield, by developing quality products that tour-ists are willing to buy, and inciting longer stays with enhanced motivation to revisit. Thus, GMS’s strategy is to “develop and promote the Mekong Region as a single destination, offering a diversity of good quality and high yielding sub regional products that helps to distribute the benefits of tourism more widely; add to the tourism development efforts of each country, by fostering a sustainable tourism development approach, by contributing to poverty reduction, gender equality and empowerment of women, while minimizing any adverse impacts.”

The strategy is comprised of 7 core programs: (1) marketing; (2) human resource development; (3) heritage conservation and mitigation of negative impacts; (4) pro-poor tourism; (5) private sector participation; (6) facilitation of travel, and (7) tourism development in priority zones. These core programs are divided into 29 projects including 16 thematic projects and 13 geographical projects.

1) Marketing the subregion as a single destinationTo support multi country tourism in the GMS by stimulating demand from high yield markets through appropriate product development and joint promotional activities.

2) Human resource development with women’s empowermentTo upgrade the skills of tourism managers and tourism trainers to ensure that the strategy can be imple-mented and that the tourism institutions deliver qual-ity training so that qualified staff is in place to face and manage tourism demand from high yield markets.

3) Heritage conservation and mitigation of nega-tive socio-cultural impactsTo promote higher standards in the management of natural and cultural resources to maintain the value of what are the core tourism assets of the GMS; To strengthen socially responsible practices necessary to limit the negative impacts which uncontrolled tourism growth generates.

4) Pro-poor tourism and Equitable Distribution of BenefitsTo promote patterns of tourism development that help reduce the incidence of poverty and increase economic opportunities and incomes for the poor-est through their empowerment.

5) Private sector participationTo facilitate private sector participation and part-nership in planning, investment and marketing.

6) Cross-border facilitationTo address impediments of travel to and within the GMS

7) Tourism-related infrastructureTo jointly plan and develop tourism infrastructure throughout the 13 identified GMS priority zones and to better spread the benefits of tourism.

Key challenges over the next ten years will be to main-tain sustainability and develop high yield quality tour-ism. This action endeavors to secure the first founda-tion of the GMS Tourism Sector that will allow the GMS countries to optimize the benefits from tourism for its human and economic development while pre-serving the cultural and natural assets which are its main capital for the long term.

References: mekongtourism.org

Introduction to the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), based in Bangkok, Thailand, was established with funding from the six governments of Cambodia, Chi-na, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand, which represent the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). The MTCO has two major functions:

1) Development – To co-ordinate sustainable pro-poor tourism development projects in the Mekong in line with the United Nations Millennium Devel-opment Goals, and

2) Marketing – To promote the Mekong region as a single travel and tourism destination.

GMS Tourism Sector Strategy 2005-2015Inbound tourism in the GMS has been one of the fast-est growing destinations in the world. Between 2004 and 2006, the number of tourist arrivals, based on the PATA studies, increased by 26%, with an impressive 61% growth for Cambodia and 55% for Yunnan and Guangxi together.

Sustainable Tourism Development Success Stories:Mekong Tourism Organization

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and online channels to get more people talking about Aus-tralia. The campaign has been deliberately designed to be flexible and to stand the test of time. Like all good cam-paigns, There’s Nothing like Australia will evolve as required, to stay relevant.

In the next phase – which we plan to launch during 2012 – we’re aiming to take our global message up a notch, and really focus on our quality. The new campaign will be about putting our best foot forward, to demonstrate to the world the unique, distinctive and world’s best product we have to offer here in Australia – no matter which sector of the market.

We have also built the There’s Nothing like Australia campaign to enhance domestic holiday travel to Austral-ians. The latest domestic phase of the campaign – the DreamTeam – launched in September 2011, focused get-ting Australians to share their favourite Australian place or experience with their fellow Aussies, again by uploading their photographs and stories to the campaign website.

The initial There’s Nothing like Australia Dream Team promotion results have been very positive, showing high level of participation, engagement and reach across target audience with some 30,000 entries and 375,000 monthly unique visitors to the promotional website. This promo-tion was estimated to have reached an audience of more than 17 million people.

So, twenty years on from Paul Hogan, we still have a per-sonal Aussie invitation in our campaigns – but this time around, it’s been delivered by thousands of Australians, sharing personal recommendations which cover just about every aspect of the Australian visitor experience and help-ing to build a powerful endorsement for travel to Australia.

And that’s what it is all about – because there really is nothing like Australia.

and do your thing. We didn’t tell him to write about Aus-tralia as a travel destination. We didn’t tell him what or who to shoot. We just said: do what you do best. And he did.

And what he posted opened a lot of people’s eyes to the fact that Australia is a sophisticated, stylish place – that’s a lot of fun to visit. So, there are many different dimensions to promoting Australia and one size doesn’t fit all. Our fu-ture work with leading bloggers within Asia also further emphasises this approach – and is what social media and advocacy is all about.

And this doesn’t mean the views of Australians don’t mat-ter. They are the experts on what makes Australia unlike anywhere else and are therefore our most important advo-cates and ambassadors. We know from our research that Aussies want to help promote Australia to people overseas, and that’s what our current global campaign – There’s noth-ing like Australia – is all about.

Since we launched the campaign in May 2010, Austral-ians have uploaded some 30,000 stories and images to www.nothinglikeaustralia.com to show the world why they should visit, making it one of Australia’s most success-ful consumer-generated promotions ever.

We’ve used all these images to create an interactive digital map of Australia, made up of the things Australians think are special about the country. There’s everything there from wildlife, street life, wineries, dining, sporting events, museums, beaches and our sophisticated cities.

More importantly, the campaign is working, and hitting the mark with those in the key international markets we are targeting. For example, in China – our fastest grow-ing and most valuable inbound tourism market – over 9 out of 10 of a recent sample of people who had seen the campaign were motivated to the point of researching a trip to Australia.

The There’s nothing like Australia campaign has been built to last. The core message was designed for longevity through different mediums, audiences and activities. It of-fers an opportunity to build a multi-faceted campaign to engage consumers in new and different ways. There’s Noth-ing like Australia is now in 29 international markets and is gaining momentum, helping to shift travelers closer to booking an Australian holiday.

Australia’s travel trade has been supportive of the cam-paign with more than 50 partners working with TA inter-nationally and 140 companies using the campaign. Our focus now is to continue to bring the campaign to life by expanding on the foundations and using new advocates

seem clichéd but it is our nature – our fauna and won-derful natural landscapes that are the things that set our country apart.

Like most national tourism authorities, we use our icons to draw people in and then broaden our messaging. Whilst the flagship television commercial is still important, it is declining as a centerpiece as more marketing goes digital and as consumers go increasingly to assess their travel as-pirations.

So we reach out in other ways, and are showing global leadership throughout award winning digital ‘advocacy’ campaigns like ‘Trip in a Minute’, ‘Making Tracks’ and ‘30 Days in Oz’, and through social media platforms like our 2 million plus Facebook fans, making Tourism Australia the most popular destination page globally.

To be relevant with today’s consumer, Tourism Australia has and is continuing to provide compelling content by using the channels consumers are researching and booking their holidays – and ttoday, that’s online.

It’s about getting Australia noticed and talked about. I think a past good example was inviting American online style blogger Scott Schumann (as known as The Sartorial-ist) to Australia. We bought Scott down here, said go out

Tourism Australia’s Managing Director Andrew McEvoy shares his thoughts on his organisation’s global marketing campaign, There’s Nothing like Australia.

Tourism Australia (TA) has built a global reputation for excellence in its marketing and research, targeting the key markets where the greatest tourism growth opportunities exist. Our campaigns continue to have high global appeal and are heavily backed by the Australian Government’s Tourism 2020 strategy – central to which is a concerted government and tourism industry effort to double the val-ue of visitor spending for the Australian tourism industry to AUD140 billion by 2020.

As part of this vision, Tourism Australia is focused on marketing Australia’s unique tourism attributes where the greatest tourism growth opportunities exist to the right consumers, in the right markets and in the right way. And these markets increasingly will lie in Asia, whilst height-ened focus will remain in our previously core international markets of the United Kingdom and the United States.

“The truth is Australia is not a mass tourism destination and the way Australia is pitched to overseas consumers is largely built around what motivates people to travel here”, said Mr. McEvoy. For Australians, images of kangaroos, koalas, the Rock, the reef and the Opera House might

Focus on Tourism Policy:There’s Nothing Like Australia – Tourism Australia’s Global Marketing Campaign

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INTERNATIONAL FOLK FESTIVALS IN NEPAL The largest international dimension of the folkloric

groups / artistic troops welcomed the efforts undertaken by the authorities of respective contributing organizations and nations. The cost of transportation, medical aid, in-surance and related assistance drove the Nepal festivals to regroup in an organisation in order to facilitate the admin-istrative and diplomatic formalities and to share the pro-gramming costs of the amateur artists concerned.

South Pacific Food & Wine Hospitality ConferenceOver two exciting days, the inaugural South Pacific Food

& Wine Hospitality Conference and concurrent Hos-pitality Trade Expo presented an international program delivered by acknowledged industry experts and award winning celebrity chefs, to learn the latest culinary and management trends in the world’s top restaurants and in-ternational hotels and resorts. The event showcased the latest in products and services, and hosted an range of net-working opportunities including an exciting program of social activities, Signature dinners and a Gala Ball

[http://www.southpacificfoodandwine.com/]

The 35th World Association of Chefs Socie-ties World Congress

Held in the prosperous city of Daejeon, South Korea May 1-5, 2012, this is the first time esteemed event will feature a united theme, “How to Feed the Planet in the Future”. As members of one of the most important profes-sions in the world, it is our responsibility to shape positive change in the future. The Congress will present many op-portunities to discuss and share ideas on this subject. The initiative is expected to be further extended as it becomes the focus of the 2015 WorldExpo in Milan, Italy under the theme “Feed the Planet, Energy for Life” presenting a further opportunity to enhance our roles as chefs and have our voices heard.

[http://www.wacs2012.org]

Phuket International Marine Expo(PIMEX)The Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX) takes

place at the 80-berth yacht basin at the Royal Phuket Ma-rina. PIMEX is a marine showcase that boasts a mixture of superb luxury yachts, charter boats and the latest marine equipment. Now in its ninth year, the international water-side boat show is the biggest “on water boat show” in Asia.

[http:// www.tourismthailand.org]

Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Cultural FestivalFrom 18 to 19 April 2012, Vietnamese Ethnic Groups

Cultural Festival will be held at the Culture-Tourism Vil-lage of Vietnamese ethnic groups (Dong Mo, Son Tay, Ha Noi) with the theme “Opportunity in the Dragon year”. The festival consists of 8 main contents: preliminary conference on three-year implementation of “Day of Vi-etnamese ethnic culture”; Conference on promotion and investment to develop culture-tourism products; a Gala night to honour the culture of Vietnamese ethnic groups; Northern mountain markets; activity programs of repre-sentatives of 13 ethnic community groups at the Culture-Tourism Village of Vietnamese ethnic groups; Traditional craft villages exhibition; performance of traditional games, sports and camping festival of Ho Chi Minh Youth Union of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Within the framework of festival, the Vietnam National Adminis-tration of Tourism will guide travel enterprises to connect their tours and tourist destinations with cultural tourism programs at the Culture-Tourism Village of Vietnamese ethnic groups; coordinate to hold Conference on promo-tion and investment to develop culture-tourism products; cooperate with press agencies to introduce the event and tourism products of the Culture-Tourism Village of Viet-namese ethnic groups.

[http://www.vietnamtourism-info.com]

Gold Coast Film FestivalThe Gold Coast Film Festival is an annual celebration

of screen culture which runs for 10 days. It includes: Queensland Showcase - cinema screenings of independ-ent films shot in Queensland, International and Australian pre-release films, Asia Pacific Screen Award winning films and Cool Japan: a screen culture program designed to cel-ebrate Japan’s creative industries. In addition the festival hosts free filmmaking workshops and runs a free outdoor screening program oriented towards children’s and family films. 75 per cent of Queensland’s film industry is located on the Gold Coast, and this event seeks to be the flag-ship of and porthole to that industry. In 2012 the GCFF will have many exciting guest speakers including science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster, Surf Film Maker Jack McCoy, Actor Shane Rangi (Spartacus) and Anime film makers from Japan.

[http:// www.australia.com]

South Pacific Food & Wine Hospitality ConferenceOver four exciting days, the inaugural South Pacific

Food & Wine Hospitality Conference and concurrent Hospitality Trade Expo will present an international pro-gram delivered by acknowledged industry experts and award winning celebrity chefs, to learn the latest culinary and management trends in the world’s top restaurants and international hotels and resorts. The event will showcase the latest in products and services, and host a range of net-working opportunities including an exciting program of social activities, Signature dinners and a Gala Ball

[http://www.southpacificfoodandwine.com/]

Conferences andMeetings

3rd Tourism Statistics Capacity-building Workshop and Regional Seminar on Tour-ism Statistics Capacity-building

The 3rd Statistics Capacity-building Workshop and Re-gional seminar is jointly organized by UNWTO and the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism of Aus-tralia, the Ministry of Economic Development of New Zealand with the close collaboration of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand and UNESCAP. The 3rd Tourism Statistics Capacity-building Workshop will be held in Bangkok from 5-6 March 2012 and the Regional Seminar on Tourism Statistics Capacity-building will be held in Bangkok from 8-9 March 2012.

Month Date Conferences and Meetings Venue

March

05-06 3rd Tourism Statistics Capacity-building Workshop Bangkok, Thailand

08-09 Regional Seminar on Tourism Statistics Capacity-building Bangkok, Thailand

09-18 International folk festivals in Nepal Khatmandu, Nepal

14-17 South Pacific Food & Wine Hospitality Conference Denarau, Fiji

20-27 The 35th World Association of Chefs Societies World Congress Daejeon, Korea

April

Mar 29- Apr 1 Phuket International Marine Expo (PRIMEX) Phuket, Thailand

18-19 Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Cultural Festival Hanoi, Vietnam

19-29 Gold Coast Film Festival Queensland, Australia

May

03 UNWTO High-level Regional Conference on Green Tourism Chiang Mai, Thailand

03-05 The 24th Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for South Asia and the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific

Chiang Mai, Thailand

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Indonesia 39 over 139 for our eight World Cultural Heritage Sites. In addition, Indonesia has the potential to be a venue for international festivals and creative industry exhibition, Dr. Pangestu explained. “In July 2011 we achieved our highest volume of foreign tourists during the last three years, attracting 750,000 arrivals.” [www.budpar.go.id]

TrulyAsia. TV Mobile App. Now Available for Travellers

Travellers to Malaysia can now access insights on Malaysia’s exotic travel destinations, historical heritage, colourful events, homestay and accommodation through the newly launched TrulyAsia.TV Mobile App. Produced under Tourism Malaysia’s Web TV project, the TrulyAsia.TV Mobile App aims to provide a portable source of travel information on Malaysia for travellers around the world. It is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry mobile users, making travel to Malaysia much easier. Moreover, with the TrulyAsia.TV App readily available, visitors can enjoy a more informed and hassle-free tourism experience. Users will greatly benefit from this app; both prior to arrival when planning their holiday, and from its conveniences after arrival. Travellers can access content conveniently and on-the-go providing informative descriptions of sights and events, state by state overviews and important contact information. [www.tourism.gov.my]

“Long Bien Bridge – Past and Present” Picture Exhibition

The opening ceremony of a picture exhibition themed “Long Bien Bridge – Past and Present” was held at the Exhibition House at 93 Dinh Tien Hoang, Hanoi on December 19, 2011.

This was a large-scale exhibition dedicated to Hanoian painters and their devotion to the history throughout many

generations. As part of the exhibition, The Hanoi Fine Art Association organised five reality trips which brought the artists to Long Bien Bridge to draw. The exhibition showcased 169 painting works and two sculptures about Long Bien Bridge from 111 members from The Hanoi Fine Art Association and 60 young painters. Picture galleries at 93 Dinh Tien Hoang were full of pictures on Long Bien Bridge; past and present, spanning the Red River for more than a hundred years and having withstood several attacks during wartime. Long Bien Bridge is a testament to the bravery of the Vietnamese people and is a well appointed symbol of Hanoi in the present era of peace and integration. [www.vietnam-tourism.com]

MGTO to Publish Room Rate on a Permanent Basis for the Convenience of Visitors

The Macau Government Tourist Office will commence publishing hotel and guesthouse room rates on its website on a permanent basis as of December to provide a fair reference for residents and visitors. MGTO expressed that for guests who reserve rooms directly with the hotels, the price cannot exceed the limit of the rates published. However, if bookings are done through any other channels, namely travel agencies or on-line reservation services, the room rates published on the website can only be taken as reference. According to the current regulations, all hotels and guesthouses are required to inform MGTO of any revised room rates and ensure that room rates are not higher than what is registered. Guests can check hotel information and the published room rates at the MGTO website. [http://www.macautourism.gov.mo]

Asia PacificNews Brief

Sri Lanka Celebrates 800,000 Tourist Arrivals

Achieving another remarkable milestone in 2011 for the country’s booming tourism industry, Sri Lanka welcomed its 800,000 tourist (up nearly 150,000 from the year prior) at the Bandaranaike International Airport yesterday evening.

In commemoration of the record breaking figure, Sri Lanka Tourism offered a special gift and a complimentary tour package to the tourists who arrived yesterday. This year’s record arrivals resulted from a strong increase of visitors from India, Japan, Germany, the U.K, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Middle Eastern countries. November 2011 also broke the country’s monthly arrivals record receiving a total of 90,889 tourists.

[http://med.gov.lk/english/?p=9551]

Tourism Australia Urges Revellers to Share Their Sydney New Year’s Eve Experience With the World

Tourism Australia is urging people to get involved in its latest digital and social media campaign to create a short video captures on New Year’s Eve featuring user-generated video clips of Sydney revellers captured via the City of Sydney’s NYE iPhone app. The film titled Project:12 portrays the shared experience and emotion of welcoming in the New Year with friends and family against the

magnificent backdrop of Sydney’s world renowned fireworks display. Project:12 is released on Tourism Australia’s YouTube channel and promoted globally via its Facebook and Twitter in the early morning hours of January 1, 2012 before many other parts of the world reach their own 2012 countdown. The initiative is part of a Tourism Australia and City of Sydney joint venture to show the world why there’s nothing like celebrating New Year’s Eve in Sydney, Australia. Tourism Australia is also giving away a BridgeClimb gift certificate for the best video clip submitted. [www.australia.com]

Tourism for National Economy SafeguardMinister for Tourism and Creative Economy, Dr. Mari

Elka Pangestu, said the tourism sector and the domestic market have potential to provide national economy safeguard during the global economic recession. The economic crisis and global uncertainty; estimated to last several more years, is going to be a continuing challenge for Indonesia. During the last 15 months or in the period of 2008-2009, global foreign tourist experienced negative growth, according to the UNWTO. While in 2010 and 2011, the agency noted that global tourism showed a 6.6 and 4.5 percent of increase, successively demonstrating the tourism industry’s mitigating potential. In fact, Indonesia is the largest archipelago with the fourth largest population in the world, in which most of the population is in productive age. The World Economic Forum ranks

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With more than 30 years of industry experience, Steve Noakes has obtained academic, industry and not-for-profit organization interests in tourism across Asia.

Mr. Noakes is senior Lecturer in Tourism at the UNWTO affiliate, CQUniversity-Australia, founding Chair of Pacific Asia Tourism Pty Ltd, - an international sustainable tour-ism project management across Asia Pacific, and Director of Ecolodges in Indonesia. Additionally, he is a board member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council , and Asia Pacific Focal Point for the SAVE Travel Alliance. Mr. Noakes has been involved in numerous tourism projects associated with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, International Labor Organization and governments across Asia and the Pacific. As a member of the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts, he has been involved with the UNWTO on projects in Bhutan, Republic of Korea, Indonesia and Africa.

Interview summary of Mr. Noakes’ comments on domestic tourism across Asia and the Pacific.

While outbound travel by Australians has boomed in the past few years largely driven by a strong dollar, domestic tour-ism in Australia has remained stagnant over much of the past decade. Mr. Noakes has, however, witnessed the emergence of different forms of domestic tourism markets in the region over the past decade.

“As an example, one indicator I use in the ecotourism market for domestic demand in Asia is the establishment of local lan-guage editions of magazines such as National Geographic. If, as we now see in Thailand and Indonesia, a major global brand such as National Geographic identifies a domestic market for its quality nature-based journalism and photography, that probably also suggests those countries have a local market that is interested in locally based ecotourism products. It’s certainly something we are seeing with our ecolodges in places like Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra and Tanjung Putting Na-tional Park in Kalimantan.” he said.

An Introduction toPacific Asia Tourism.org

http://pacificasiatourism.org

- SEMEGA

(HKTB)

Marcopolo Tourism Development Company (PJS)

Chamaleon Strategies, Inc. – Dragon Trail CQ University Australia

Shanghai Institute of Tourism – Shanghai Normal University�e Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Faculty of Business Administration

Tourism Promotion Organization for Asian-Paci�c Cities (TPO)Victoria Tourism Industry Council

Parsian Tourism & Recreational Centers Co. (PTRCO)

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Asia-Pacific Newsletter I 2012, Issue 25

UNWTO Tianjin Training Program onTourism Marketing

19th Session of the UNWTOGeneral Assembly – Special Events


Cruise TourismCurrentSituation and Trendsin Asia and the Pacific

Special Report :

Specially Funded by the Ministery of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of KoreaWorld Tourism OrganizationCapitán Haya 42, 28020 Madrid, SpainTel: (34) 91 567 81 00 / Fax: (34) 91 571 37 33 [email protected] / www.UNWTO.org

Compendium of Tourism Statistics - 2011 edition

Handbook on Tourism Product Development

The 2011 edition of the Compendium of Tourism Statistics has been considerably expanded and its

Tourism products are the basis for a destination’s tourism sector operation: unless the tourism product meets the

The Asia-Pacific region is considered the world’s religious core with the greatest number of pilgrims and

new format features information on inbound, outbound and dom-estic tourism, tourism industries and employment as well as macro-economic international tourism related indicators. Much more than an update on previous Compen-dium editions, the new publication responds to countries’ petitions for enlarging the focus of tourism to also domestic tourism, tourism industries and employment, as well as the need for further international comparability on these aspects.The Compendium is designed to provide a condensed and quick-reference guide on the major tourism statistical data and indicators in each country. It provi-des statistical information on tourism in 212 countries and territories from around the world for the period 2005 – 2009 and is available in English, with country notes given in English, French and Spanish.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1389-8

needs and expectations of tourists, the destination cannot realise its full potential. However, only few destinations focus their attention on the development and delivery of the various attractions and activities that make up the tourism product. The UNWTO/ETC Handbook on Tourism Product

Development outlines the essential elements in the process of tourism product development planning and implementation, e.g. coordination, consultation, collaboration – co-opetition. It illustrates these principles through a range of successful approaches and case studies from around the world and sets out best practice examples and benchmarks by which destinations can assess their own product development system and methods.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1395-9

Policy and Practice for Global Tourism

Policy and Practice for Global Tourism is a guide to the major themes in world tourism today. Through 11

chapters, it presents an overview of topics ranging from sustainable tourism to social networks or emerging markets to creating a successful destination brand. Examples of UNWTO’s work in key areas are highlighted throughout the publication, and these are complimented by case studies and opinions from business leaders, destinations management organizations, academics and NGOs.Policy and Practice for Global Tourism is aimed at decision makers working in the public and private sectors alike, as well as those who are simply interested in learning more about this fast-moving and dynamic sector of the global economy.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1379-9

Religious Tourism in Asia and the Pacific

travellers for religious events, for both international and domestic tourism. It is estimated that there are approximately six hundred million national and international religious and spiritual voyages in the world, of which 40% take place in Europe and over half in Asia. According to UNESCO, 60% of the world’s population practises a religion and these believers form the demographic base of religious tourism. This study has therefore clearly identified areas of interest that appeal to the religious aspects of travel and it is the responsibility of tourism administrators and travel professionals to glean this information and look at religious tourism as a resource in the same light as the sun, sea and sand holidays that are readily marketed by tourism professionals.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1380-5

China continues to develop as a leading powerhouse in tourism, and it becomes ever more important to

Report on Urban Tourism Development in China

examine the various facets of tourism in China in order to understand the potential of this market, and the effect it will have on global tourism. This report analyses the statistics of Chinese inbound metropolitan tourism markets, as well as the outbound trends of metropolitan residents from 2000 to 2007. Twenty of China’s best tourism cities are analyzed. Originally released in Chinese by the Shanghai Institute of Tourism in 2009, this English edition provides special insight into China’s cities as source markets as well as destinations.Publication Year: 2011ISBN: 978-92-844-1397-3

cruise tourism current situation and trends in asia and...

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