Asia Pacific region projected to receive 405m tourists by 2020

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FE Report Asia Pacific region is projected to receive 405 million arrivals of total international tourism by 2020, which is 25 per cent of the global international tourism market, said a statement Sunday. This will place the region as the second largest tourism region in the world after Europe, it added. Following the significant contributions of cooperative approaches to the development of tourism in Europe, Central and South America and in the Greater Mekong sub-region, five countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka -- have been implementing a joint project to develop and market Buddhist heritage and nature-based tourism products with the technical assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB). The 11th meeting of the South Asia Sub-Regional Tourism Working Group (TWG) began at a city hotel Sunday, hosted by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) in this connection. The meeting will conclude today (Monday). The main objective of the meeting is to review the progress of the implementation process of the strategic directions and actions of the road-map in the stakeholder countries. As many as 30 participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka are taking part in the meeting. No representative from India was present in the meeting. The inaugural day of the two-day meeting was addressed, among others, Tourism secretary Atharul Islam, BPC Chairperson Hemayet Uddin Talukder, ADB Senior Country Specialist, Bangladesh resident mission, Meriaty Subroto, Senior Urban Development Specialist, South Asia department, ADB Ludwig Rieder, and Tourism and Leisure Europraxis Marketing Specialist Erik Johansson. Bangladesh received $12 million in technical assistance from the ADB one year back out of the total $72.5 million loan and grant investments. The project is supposed to be finished by 2014. Key recommendations such as the restoration and upgradation of tourism-related infrastructure at key sites in Bangladesh, India and Nepal are now being implemented. The key focus of the Buddhist heritage and nature-based tourism products includes western Bangladesh (heritage highway, Brahmaputra river and the Sundarbans), Bhutan, LumbiniPokhara in Nepal, northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Sikim, and Kandy in the cultural triangle and other heritage sites in the south-western Sri Lanka. Under the project there will be a common website of world heritage sites, which will be translated into Bengali, Nepalese, Sinhali and Hindi, and human resources and infrastructure for tourism will be developed. In 2004, the TWG prepared a plan that sought to build a larger and more sustainable tourism flow based on the iconic Buddhist culture and the natural and cultural heritage resources of the sub-region. Recognising the increasing global interdependence, the strong interest in multi-country visits and the importance of cross-border cooperation to push economic growth, many countries have added cooperative approaches to economic development that includes tourism.