ACC Representatives Attended the 51st Meeting of ASEAN NTOs and the 36th Meeting of ASEAN Plus Three NTOs

From 12 to 13 January 2020, the 51st Meeting of ASEAN National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) was held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam during the 39th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF). The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Pengiran Haji Kamalrudzaman, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism of Brunei and Mr. Thong Rathasak, Director General of Tourism Development International Department of Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia. There were over 100 delegates from the ASEAN NTOs, ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), ASEAN-Japan Centre, ASEAN-Korea Centre, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), ASEAN travel associations and other relevant organizations. Permanent Secretary Pengiran Haji Kamalrudzaman called for joint efforts of all relevant organizations to contribute to the development of ASEAN tourism, such as sustainable and inclusive development of destinations, regional collaboration among the tourism stakeholders as well as maintaining competitiveness of the ASEAN tourism industry. Director General Thong Rathasak expressed hope that the 51st ASEAN NTO Meeting would serve as a platform for exchanging views and developing concrete mechanisms for sustainable development of tourism industry in the ASEAN Member States (AMS), especially for implementing the ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan (ATSP) 2016-2025.
During the Meeting, Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division of ACC gave a detailed presentation on the role of ACC, the latest ASEAN-China tourism figures, ACC’s key achievements and completed tourism projects in 2019 and Work Programme 2020. She hoped that all ASEAN NTOs would continue to provide strong support to ACC for its successful implementation of 2020 projects. The ASEAN NTOs and the other relevant organizations appreciated ACC’s efforts and its contributions to the ASEAN tourism industry and expressed high interest in cooperating with ACC in its future activities.
The meeting discussed the progress of the implementation of ATSP 2016-2025, the reports of the ASEAN Tourism Committees on Competitiveness, Sustainable and Inclusive Tourism Development, Tourism Professionals Monitoring and Tourism Resourcing, Monitoring and Evaluation. It also reviewed the ASEAN tourism performance in 2018 and 2019, and discussed cooperation with the other ASEAN bodies and dialogue partners, namely, China, ROK, Japan, India andRussia.
On 14 January, ACC representatives attended the 36th Meeting of ASEAN Plus Three NTOs and exchanged views with other delegates on further promoting the regional tourist flow and multilateral collaboration. On the sidelines of the above meetings, Director Kong Roatlomang also met and exchanged views with officials of Indonesian NTO on co-organizing the Chinese Language Training for Chinese Tour Guide Teachers programme in Indonesia and future tourism cooperation.    
Established in 1981, the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) is a regional cooperative mechanism to promote and develop ASEAN as one single destination. The theme of ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2020 was ASEAN-Together Towards a Next Generation of Travel. Lasting from 12-16 January, the ATF comprised of key meetings of the ASEAN Tourism Ministers, of ASEAN-China, Japan and ROK Tourism Ministers, and of ASEAN-India Tourism Ministers, ASEAN Tourism Awards 2020 and TRAVEX 2020.