The tsunami-stricken Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian countries pledged in Phuket, Thailand on Tuesday to take joint actions to revive their tourism industries, which have endured enormous loss in the Dec. 26 catastrophe.

In the Phuket Action Plan discussed at the Emergency Session of the Executive Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO), 40-odd participating countries and regions agreed to speed up tourism recovery in affected destinations such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand and Indonesia.

The plan set as a goal to assist these destinations in resuming normal operation by restoring travelers' confidence, enforcing marketing-communication, facilitating access to relief fund for small and medium-sized tourism business and re-training tourism employees in a bid to get new jobs.

Sustainable redevelopment in terms of environment conservation and community involvement were stressed during the re-planning process of these tsunami-affected destinations.

The plan recommended a number of ideas to lure tourists, like expanding of Thai Airways "Lucky Draw" campaign, which gives free tickets to Thai destinations affected by tsunami.

The WTO called for tourism generating countries to be prudent regarding the issuance of travel advisories, taking into consideration the partiality of damage inflicted to each country and their up-to-date sanitary condition of the destinations.

Apart from joint regional actions, special activities were also tailored to meet the different needs of their countries. For the Maldives, where tourism accounts for a third of the country's GDP but was seriously hit in the tsunami, priorities were set on communication restoration, more visitors and disaster management. On top of Thailand's recovery agenda are assistance to small tourism-related business and diversifying its tourism offer to include more nature and cultural based products in the southern region.

Although initiated by the WTO, the plan will not be one by the organization alone, WTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli told the one-day emergency meeting.

The emergency meeting was called after the unprecedented killer waves killed more than 280,000 people in the region and dealt a blow to tourism industry in some areas.

"We intend to work in partnership with the regional organization of Asia and join forces with bilateral and multilateral financial institutions as well as with major private operators, which are offering their assistance," said Frangialli.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2005)