Asia's tourism to pick up by the year-end
(GANG JI, China Daily staff)
07/14/2003
HONG KONG: Asia's tourism industry is starting to pick up and is expected to recover by the end of this year, the chief of the World Tourism Organization said yesterday. "We see a lot of indications worldwide, and in Asia, that a recovery is coming. The industry is going to pick up again, and pick up strongly," said the organization's Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli at a press conference. Frangialli said the tourism industry worldwide has undergone a difficult time since the middle of 2001, hit by a global economic downturn, terrorist attacks and the recent SARS epidemic. The travel industry has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome as people avoided travelling to infected areas. Asia, which Frangialli called "a driving force of tourism worldwide", suffered greatly from the SARS outbreak. The Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Viet Nam all suffered fatal outbreaks of the respiratory disease that affected more than 8,400 people worldwide and killed some 800. Most cases and deaths were in Asia. "Now the epidemic is over and we can just see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said, adding the situation would be back to normal in the last quarter of this year. He said it is hard to quantify the loss the Asian tourism industry has suffered because not all countries and regions in Asia have adopted a standard index measuring the role of tourism in their economies. Frangialli is in Hong Kong to attend the two-day "International Co-operation for Tourism Development Under A New Paradigm" conference organized by Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) and the World Tourism Organization. Starting from today, the conference will focus on the theme of revitalizing Asian tourism. The largest international event in Hong Kong in the wake of the SARS outbreak, the conference would have more than 1,000 participants, including those in 30 national delegations and 800 from international organizations, tourism trade and academia, said Yao Shenhong, director of BFA's secretariat. The conference will cover topics such as the governments' role in revitalizing Asian tourism and promotion of intra-regional tourism in the Asia-Pacific region. (HK Edition 07/14/2003 page1)
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