Joint Tourism Dev’t And Air Links At BIMP-EAGA Workshop
By Rosli Abidin Yahya

Bandar Seri Begawan - The promotion of joint tourism development and the air linkages within the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) was the main agenda at the Strategic Tourism Planning Workshop held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from March 18 to 19.

The workshop saw service operators and tourism industry players in the four member nations converged under one roof, which was regarded an important step towards rationalising the strategic direction of the EAGA tourism sector.

Some 40 representatives from the EAGA private sector tourism organisations participated in the workshop, including Hj Mohd Tali Hj Abd Rahman, Head of Tourism Brunei Unit, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources.

The representatives are mainly from tourism councils or boards and associations of travel agents and tour operators, air service operators, local government tourism officers in areas with existing air service routes, staff of the EAGA national secretariat, BIMP-Facilitation Centre, BIMP-EAGA Tourism Council and BIMP-EAGA Business Council.

The workshop focused on priority programmes and projects where delegates discussed common concerns and action plans which would benefit the countries concerned.

A three-year strategic action plan was drawn up at the workshop that included priority programmes, projects and activities to promote greater tourism development, increase visitor traffic, and help sustain the operations of air service operators in the sub-regions.

The two-day workshop also helped pave the way for greater cooperation among the stakeholders in the EAGA transport and tourism sectors.

Delegates agreed that helping the service operators bring their still fledgling operations to commercially viable levels is the key to the sustainability of air linkages within EAGA.

This is where the EAGA tourism sector can play an important role in helping sustain the EAGA air service routes where the promotion of joint tourism development and development of air linkages in the sub-region are interdependent and mutually beneficial.

The workshop also discussed the opening of transport linkages, which would promote tourism and result in increased passenger traffic across borders as well as the EAGA private sector tourism action plan.

The plan would be submitted to the Joint Tourism Development Cluster as inputs to a bigger strategic planning workshop involving wider participation of both government and private sector tourism stakeholders to flesh out a more comprehensive tourism marketing and promotions programme.

Subsequently, the programme will be submitted to the Senior Officials Meeting or Ministerial Meeting for approval and implementation. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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