Regional tourism experts met yesterday in Vientiane to prepare for next week's meeting of ASEAN tourism ministers against a backdrop of Asia's growing bird flu crisis.
Around 1,700 industry professionals and government officials will take part in the nine-day ASEAN Tourism Forum in the Lao capital to draw up plans to boost the region's tourism industry.
On Wednesday their conclusions will be presented to tourism ministers from the 10 members of ASEAN, as well as ministers from China, Japan and South Korea.
Vientiane will then host a tourism fair bringing together private businesses and tourism institutions, which will run until the end of the week.
Asia's travel sector has so far survived the initial onslaught of the bird flu epidemic, which has hit 10 countries in the region, including Laos, and resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people.
Industry analysts said travellers have not shunned the region this time because unlike the pneumonia-like SARS virus, it has not been proven that bird flu can be transmitted through human contact.
Last year's SARS outbreak wreaked havoc on East Asia's travel and tourism industries.
Lao foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy said bird flu would definitely be one of the talking points during the forum, but he stressed that visitors to the country faced minimal risk.
"We want to reassure people that so far we have not identified any transmission of bird flu to humans in Laos."
RSS