MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung speaking at the Meeting (Photo: TITC)

Speaking at the Meeting, MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung proposed a number of initiatives to promote the effectiveness of ASEAN+3 tourism cooperation. Accordingly, in recent years, ASEAN Plus Three member countries have coordinated an action plan with 4 major activities: exhibitions, travel fairs, travel conferences and digital transformation activities in tourism. Initially, it can be seen that these activities have achieved achievements, especially the connection and mutual support.

​Vietnam with the desire for a stronger and more sustainable development of ASEAN. There is indeed a need to strengthen more activities and innovate content so that ASEAN+3 can fulfil its mission of supporting ASEAN to develop stronger and more powerful.

The Minister said that the need for people-to-people exchanges in ASEAN+3 countries is huge. Through this activity, people from other countries are satisfied to explore and experience the cultural tourism of other countries, on the basis of cultural similarities. Therefore, the Minister proposed that the three countries of China, Japan and Korea need to coordinate to create favourable conditions for ASEAN countries to organise the Tourism Culture Week and Tourism Culture Day in the three countries to promote tourism development bilaterally and multilaterally. From there, the number of visitors from ASEAN countries to the three countries will increase and vice versa.

Additionally, digital transformation in tourism is an inevitable trend. Currently, there is an ASEAN tourism website built and operated by the ASEAN Tourism Secretariat. However, the website is not qualified to promote tourism to member countries. Therefore, according to the Minister, the three countries of China, Japan, and Korea that have had outstanding success in modern technology and digital transformation need to coordinate with the ASEAN Tourism Secretariat to improve website efficiency, creating an additional promotion channel for unique tourism products of each member country. This will be a communication channel to promote the country and people of ASEAN quickly and effectively, helping tourists find travel information conveniently.

ASEAN Plus Three join hands to develop tourism (Photo: TITC)

At the Meeting, the Secretary General of ASEAN reported to the Meeting on results related to tourism at the 26th ASEAN-China Summit, the 24th ASEAN-ROK Summit, the 26th ASEAN-Japan Summit and the 26th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit was held on 6-9th September 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) and ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) had many activities supporting ASEAN tourism. In detail, the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) organised China-ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition (CAEXPOTE) in October 2023 in China; ASEAN-China Tourism Investment Conference and build an ASEAN joint booth in the framework of China International Travel Mart in Kunming in November 2023; Participate in major tourism events held in China: World Tourism Alliance Dialogue in Hangzhou, International Leisure Tourism Expo in Xiamen, Shandong Tourism Development Conference, International Mountain Tourism Day in Laos, Chinese Language Training and Capacity Building Workshop for Tourism Practitioners of ASEAN in Philippines, a tourism product fam trip programme to Cambodia for Chinese social media influencers/bloggers in August 2023.

ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) implemented ASEAN Framework on Sustainable Tourism Development by coordinating with Vietnam National Authority of Tourism and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to organise workshop “Digital Skills for Green Tourism Enterprises: Training of Trainers” for delegates of ASEAN countries in Hue, Vietnam in December 2023 and hybrid platform in Tokyo; webinar “Japan’s overseas travel trend and How Japanese young people view sustainable and ASEAN tourism in May 2023; Promote responsible tourism through introducing 50 ASEAN responsible tourism products on the AJC website, newspapers, Agoda, and other electronic sites to introduce destinations to Japanese people; Coordinate with the ASEAN Secretariat to build an ASEAN tourism booth at the Tourism EXPO Japan (JATA); Promote ASEAN destinations on AJC's official website and Instagram.

ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) organised: Workshop on 2023 Work Plan in Korea in January 2023; ASEAN-Korea Tourism Capacity Building Workshop in Laos in April 2023; Discussion session on ASEAN-Korea at the ASEAN-Korea Forum; Organised exhibitions: Exhibition with the theme Ceramic Vases within the framework of ASEAN Week in November 2023; ASEAN Culture and Tourism Exhibition in Jeju, Korea; Producing video clips promoting tourism with the theme "Architecture and Culture" in Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Travel to Vietnam to film in June 2023 in Ha Noi and Ninh Binh, shown on AKC's online sites; Build and develop content for specialised tourism introduction pages on AKC's website.

Overview of the Meeting (Photo: TITC)

The Meeting recorded 24 activities corresponding to 61.5% of the implemented ASEAN+3 Tourism Cooperation Work Plan (APT) for the period 2021-2025 and the continued contribution of the National Coordinators in implementing the Work Plan as well as further encourage the National Tourism Organisations of ASEAN+3 countries to strengthen human resource development activities, sustainable tourism development, marketing and tourism industry transformation using digital technology.

The Meeting also emphasised the importance of upgrading and retraining the tourism workforce and equipping it with valuable tools, including digital technology to help workers adapt to new ways of doing business in the tourism sector. Therefore, the Meeting appreciated the three countries for their continued commitment to improving the skills and knowledge of ASEAN tourism workers through various training programmes and activities.

​Tourism Information Technology Center