The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries decided to…
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries decided to set up a US dollar 70,000 tourism fund to integrate national efforts in the sector and double arrivals to the region in the next five years.
Announcing the joint declaration here at the end of the three-day BIMSTEC roundtable and workshop today, Union Minister of State for Tourism Renuka Chowdhury said the fund would used to take up joint publicity and promotion of tourist destinations and to establish a tourism imformation centre in India for production of collateral publicity material.
This would be an annual corpus and all the seven member- nations India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan would contribute US Dollar 10,000 each to it. The idea is to co-brand the countries as an integrated tourist destination, Chowdhury said.
The forum would decide the details of management and funding of the tourism information centre at an expert group meeting to be convened soon, she said.
The joint declaration by also proposed to devise attractive tourism destinations among the countries to give fresh impetus to development of regional tourism.
The next BIMSTEC roundtable would be held back to back with the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Yangon, Myanmar.
In view of the rising interest of tourists in the region, the roundtable decided to explore possibilities of joint tour packages by private stakeholders and member-countries in the next three months with attractive discounted airfares, accommodation and tours, she said. PTI
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