The Opening Ceremony of the 37th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF 2018) was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 24 January 2018. H.E. Mr. Weerasak Kowsurat, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, Mr. Pongpanu Svetarundra, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, and Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. Attended the event were Tourism Ministers of ASEAN Member States, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India and Russia, as well as over 1,200 delegates and representatives of ASEAN National Tourism Organizations, UNWTO, WTTC, PATA and tourism industry. H.E. Mme.Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), and the representatives of ASEAN-Korea Centre and ASEAN-Japan Centreattended the Opening Ceremonyas well.
Minister Weerasak expressed that, as an important industry to boost the economy, link the people's heart and achieve a win-win result, tourism industry plays an active role in creating employment, promoting sustainable development and strengthening interconnection and intercommunication. In 2017, the number of inbound tourists in Thailand reached 35 million with a year-on-year increase of 9%, and tourism contributed more than 9% to Thailand's GDP and 6 million jobs. ATF 2018 is the sixth time for Thailand. ATF 2018held in Chiang Mai is aimed at the relevant policy measures to promote Thailand less-known tourism destinations, to promote the development of second less developed cities, to promote the Greater Mekong sub-region countries to achieve common development in tourism meanwhile to increase the tourism revenue. In recent years, ASEAN Member States have fully explored their rich tourism resources and made concerted efforts to create integrated tourism destinations, and achieved positive results. The number of international tourists has been increasing. ASEAN would continue to adhere to the spirit of cooperation and join hands with dialogue partners to build sustainable tourism and eco-tourism and promote ASEAN's sustainable development.
At the opening ceremony, Secretary-General Yang Xiuping interacted with the Ministers and representatives of ASEAN Tourism Ministries. She introduced ACC’s work in 2017 promoting bilateral cooperation in tourism and related planning work in 2018. She looked forward to strengthening ties with all parties, constantly innovate the form of cooperation and promote bilateral practical cooperation in all areas to strive for further improvement.
ATF 2018 is held from 22 to 26 January 2018, under the theme of ASEAN-Sustainable Connectivity, Boundless Prosperity, aiming at further promoting the ASEAN tourism industry chain and promoting ASEAN to become a more attractive and more integrated tourism destination. The main activities of ATF 2018 included Meeting of ASEAN Tourism Ministers, Meeting of ASEAN, China, Japan and Korea (ROK), Meeting of ASEAN Tourism Ministers and International Organizations/Associations, ASEAN Tourism TRAVEX, bilateral meetings of relevant dialogue partners, and Presentation Ceremony of The Visit ASEAN @50 Certificate Presentation to Partners, and so on.