ASEAN visit year planned

BANGKOK Association of Thai Travel Agents says an ASEAN Visit Year will be launched in 2017 to attract travel between the 10 country members.
ATTA vice president, Mingkwan Metmowlee, said according to a recent ASEANTA meeting ASEAN member countries agreed to cooperate more to build tourist arrivals and a Visit Year was one project that could unite their marketing efforts.
“The meeting agreed that in 2017, ASEAN will launch a Visit ASEAN Year campaign to promote the region especially a single visa policy,” she said encouraging the association members to build regional travel packages and tourism products to support the campaign.
The campaign details are still sketchy, but it is not the first time that ASEAN has declared a Visit Year. Past efforts, however, had a limited impact due to a lack of funding.
inside no 3She added: “ASEAN needs to tap to emerging markets to balance the shortfall of long-haul markets such as the United States and Europe …the region must focus on China as well as Japan and South Korea, the ASEAN+3 markets.”
“Visa exemption for up to 15 days for key countries such as China is a priority,” she said.
But the China market is plagued by zero dollar and kick-back tourism. A tour operator told TTR Weekly, while asking not to be named, that companies are willing to pay “millions of baht” to secure long-term contracts from Chinese travel companies.
The pay-outs diminish the value of the Chinese market as local firms need high cash reserves to handle Chinese group. In turn, those who win the business are then forced to grossly inflate the prices of optional tours to cover their kick-back to their Chinese partners. The practice also puts the business beyond the reach of small travel agencies. It will ultimately result in the market being controlled by a few large travel firms that have strong financial backing.
“The Thai government does not understand the extent of the corruption and payments that are being made to Chinese partners,” the travel agent warned.
Against this background of corruption, it is not surprising that there are objections to offering visa-free stays to Chinese visitors based on the need to limit the growth of the market.
ASEAN’s Visit Year will depend largely on easier visa and the removal of travel barriers. Both China and India have been mentioned as key markets where visa-free entry to ASEAN member countries would cause travel to surge.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia