TEHRAN – Over 20 ministers and high-ranking officials, who attended the 1st Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting on Tourism in the Iranian city of Tabriz on August 29 and 30, have unanimously proclaimed decision for widening multilateral cooperation in a bid to develop the industry across the continent.    

In the final statement of the summit, the officials also stressed the need to devise procedures that will lead to sustainable growth in the sector among the member states
Ecotourism, security measures, empowering local activists in tourism industry, eliminating poverty, ecosystem changes, and the share of global tourist arrivals were amongst the topics discussed during the two-day meeting.

Attendees from China, Thailand, Qatar, Singapore, Bangladesh and several other countries also approved to form several taskforces in order to scrutinize strategies that points to growing tourism industry and ease in tourist arrivals throughout Asia.

The Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization of Iran presided over the conference which was initiated by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the 14th ACD Ministerial Meeting, which was held earlier in March in Bangkok.

Asia Cooperation Dialogue was inaugurated in June 2002 in Cha-Am, Thailand, where 18 Asian foreign ministers met together for the first time. It aims to constitute the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian community without duplicating other organizations or creating a bloc against others.

The ACD members say 65 percent surge of Asian outbound tourists during the last decade as well as the continuance of its expansion during the coming years ahead along with an ever increasing 34 percent of international tourists to Asia have positioned the continent as the significant tourism market in the world.

AFM/MG