Building on the ATSP 2011-2015
To achieve the integration envisioned by the ASEAN Leaders, the ASEAN Tourism Ministers adopted the ATSP 2011-2015 that was built on the accomplishments by ASEAN tourism of the 19 measures under the Roadmap for Integration. These measures were consistent with the ATA adopted by the ASEAN Leaders during the 8th Summit in November 2002 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The ATSP 2011-2015, through its vision and overarching goal of sustainable tourism development sought to maximize the tourism sector’s capability to contribute toward ASEAN’s regional integration goal by addressing key constraints to the integration of the sector, namely: fragmented, incoherent and ad hoc approaches towards regional marketing, destination and product development, investment, human resources, quality standards, travel facilitation and connectivity, safety and security, and communications.
The main activities for which each working group is responsible, together with the current status of implementation and achievements to date are reviewed in Annex 1. In the scorecard prepared by TIBC, it was noted that 91% of all activities under the ATSP had been completed or were being implemented on an ongoing basis.
A review of the results of the implementation of the ATSP 2011-2015 to date, together with the review of performance of ASEAN tourism between 2010 and 2015, and the deliberations of the ATSP Task Force at its Singapore meeting in 2014 indicates that the core challenges facing the sustainable development of quality tourism and its integration within the ASEAN economy are:
• creating a better balance in the distribution of the benefits of tourism between the Member States; • reducing concerns over safety and security; • making cross border formalities more convenient and less costly; • reducing transportation and destination infrastructure congestion; • reducing the high cost of travel industry services in the region; • increasing participation by local communities in the tourism value chain especially in the less developed yet tourism resource rich areas of the region; • reducing the vulnerability of the heritage assets and related populations to climate change; and • developing destinations that are inclusive, green and knowledge-based.
Together, these challenges remain the main barriers to developing a higher quality and more inclusive tourism economy, one of the key goals of the ASEAN economic integration agenda. The main causes underlying the core challenges are:
• policy weaknesses related to investment in tourist facilities and services, persistence of restrictive policies on cross border travel and connectivity, insufficient resources for enforcing destination safety and security, and weak communications infrastructure and systems—especially in the less developed portions of the region;
• lack of clearly defined policies for the development of inclusive, green and knowledgebased subregional thematic destinations and products;