Mekong Tourism Investment Forum 2007
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tourism authorities from the six countries of the Greater Mekong sub-region met in HCM City on 29-30 March 2007 to seek common strategies to encourage investment in privately owned facilities and services.
One of the main speakers, Dr Pham Tu, Vietnam National Administration for Tourism (VNAT) deputy director general, said the forum sought ideas from the business community, tourism authorities and financing institutions.
The goal was to make the area a major tourism destination and contribute to poverty alleviation and sustainable tourism development, he said.
More than 150 representatives of the business community and tourism authorities from Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Yunnan Province in China attended the second annual Mekong tourism investment forum.
Financial lenders, academics, experts and observers also contributed their ideas toward creating sustainable tourism, especially for small- and medium-sized companies that operate in the private sector.
Held by the ADB and VNAT, the forum explored specific investment options, including common commercial bank loans, currently available SME funds and soft-loans, venture capital, and personal financing.
Delegates also discussed green certification, networking and mentor programs and proposed solutions that ADB and other related institutions could support.
Dr. Tu said the Greater Mekong Sub-region, which covers 2.5 million sq. km and has a population of more than 300 million, has great potential for tourism development, with 14 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and monuments.
In 2005, GMS received more than 20.5 million visitors, accounting for 11 per cent of the total number of tourist arrivals in the Asia-Pacific region. The figure is expected to grow to 50 million in 2015. Dr. Tu said in 2005 the GMS tourism sector earned US$16 billion and generated more than 4 million jobs.
Kamol Ratanavirakul, senior consultant at the Institute for SME Development of Thailand and president of Thai Hotel and Hospitality Management Association, said the International Finance Corp, ADB, the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund and other lending institutions should provide more support to SMEs in the region.
That could be done by setting up a tourism development fund providing low-interest loans to tourism SMEs, he said.
According to an ADB report, participation by the private sector in the GMS was mixed. In Cambodia and Thailand, tourism-related businesses all belong to the private sector, while in China’s Yunnan Province, Laos and Vietnam, many are government-owned, particularly larger hotels. However, many small- and medium-sized travel agencies in Vietnam are in the private sector.
For further information please contact: www.mekongtourism.org
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