Friday, July 14, 2006

BIMP-EAGA meeting seeks to promote tourism

Kota Kinabalu: Tourism industry players, airline operators, travel agents and tour operators from all across Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines East Asean Growth Area (Bimp-Eaga) are set to converge in Koronadal City for a two-day high-level meeting that aims to promote greater tourism and cross-border traffic in the sub-region.

The Third Bimp-Eaga Joint Tourism Development Cluster meeting of the four-country grouping will open on July 17 and 18, with more than 50 key representatives from the Bimp-Eaga tourism sector set to rally behind a common objective of pushing for joint tourism marketing and promotions as well as improvement of air services.

One of the four development clusters created under the Bimp-Eaga structure, the joint tourism development cluster is taking the lead in pursuing strategic tourism industry directions for the sub-region.

Headed by Malaysia, the cluster comprised key government and private sector tourism stakeholders within the sub-region as it facilitates and co-ordinates the implementation of flagship tourism programmes and projects identified in the Bimp-Eaga Development Roadmap.

On top of the meeting's agenda is the discussion and presentation on the status of the initiatives to promote Bimp-Eaga as the "Dream DestinASIAN" as well as to improve air connectivity within the growth area.

The meeting will also highlight discussions on other programmes and projects such as the development of tour packages anchored on the culture, adventure and nature tourism destinations in Bimp-Eaga, promotion of Eaga signature events, establishment of port-to-port air linkages, and provision of incentives for airline and shipping operators in Bimp-Eaga.

Meanwhile, a Bimp-Eaga Workshop among airline and tour operators and travel agents will also be held simultaneously on July 17 to come up with specific tour packages for viable air routes in the sub-region and other tourism marketing strategies for Bimp-Eaga.

Sohura Dimaampao, regional director of the Department of Tourism XII and Mindanao co-ordinator for Bimp-Eaga joint tourism, said that the meeting is both timely and significant for south-central Mindanao as it provides the opportunity for the region to showcase its business and tourism potentials to the Bimp-Eaga counterparts.

Strengthening tourism and air linkages has been strongly being pushed by the Philippine administration in line with the effort to revitalise Bimp-Eaga as a key strategy to develop Mindanao and Palawan.

Bimp-Eaga is an economic co-operation created in March 1994 to spur socio-economic growth of participating countries.

The sub-regional growth puts emphasis on the individual strengths of member nations in prioritising much-needed interventions.

The region has an estimated population of more than 50 million spread out across 1.5 million square kilometres of land area with strong potential for tourism, natural resources, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), transportation, infrastructure and information and communications technology (ICT) development.

Source: BERNAMA

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