Hong Kong's Committment to Asian Tourism

Browsing through Jodie's Geography I found a blog titled Social and Economic Impacts of Tourism and Recreation in Southeast and East Asia. In early 2003, tourism and recreation in Asia was hit hard by the outbreak of SARS. At the time, Asia-Pacific was the fastest growing region in the world in international tourist arrivals, partly because of the vast and diverse tourism product available in the region. In July 2003 Hong Kong, a leader in Asian tourism destinations, made a Declaration on the Revitalization of the Asian Tourism Industry. This declaration was a committment by Hong Kong to do several things for the Asian tourism industry:

1. Reassure travellers from all over the world of their safety in Asia and the
Pacific, and invite them to resume their holidays and business trips to
the region,
2. Enhance and strengthen international coordination and monitoring
systems through effective liaison and networking between Governments
and appropriate international organizations to promote effective crisis
management plans, adopting best practices and sharing of information
thereby ensuring the long-term sustainability of the sector,
3. Promote inter-governmental cooperation in addressing the issues of
travel advisories and facilitation of travel,
4. Work towards greater public-private sector cooperation and
coordination at all levels of tourism planning and management,
particularly in the design and implementation of tourism recovery plans,
5. Recognize the need to prepare tourism professionals in various aspects
of crisis management and recovery plans,
6. Foster greater inter-governmental cooperation to promote the growth of
intra-regional tourism to serve as a key driver for Asian tourism,
economic and social development, and
7. Work towards the creation of a strong alliance between Governments,
the private sector, international agencies, local communities and the
media with the view to disseminating accurate and timely information on
security and safety conditions at tourist destinations.