By Ahn Choong-yong
Tourism development has been considered one of the most effective ways to expedite economic recovery and create jobs in recent years. In 2010, there were more than 940 million international tourist arrivals worldwide, which is 6.6 percent more than the figure in 2009 despite a slowdown in tourist arrivals in advanced economies.
Given the manufacturing sector’s jobless growth in advanced and developing countries, tourism creates decent and skilled jobs to generate tremendous backward and forward linkage effects for any open economy.
In this globalizing world, tourism can also increasingly be combined with business activities and knowledge-intensive services such as medical treatment, education and scientific exploration. It is also combined with high value added MICE (meeting, incentive to travel, convention and exhibition) industries to serve multiple purposes simultaneously.
Today, tourism is becoming a way of life and even a new lifestyle across nations both developed and developing. It is a passport to development.
Indeed, tourism is no longer viewed as a privileged concept for affluent, advanced Western countries where international travel for short breaks is common. Intra-Asian tourism has spiked in the past decade, with air-traveling Chinese tourists alone expected to reach 100 million by 2020 as Asia shines amid a global financial meltdown.
In this light, the 2012 Asia International Tourism Forum, organized by North Gyeongsang Province and the city of Gyeongju last month, is timely and significant. Held in Gyeongju, the forum explored intra-Asian tourism connectivity by inviting tourism policy makers and civic organizations from nine East Asian countries.
With rising per capita income, Korea has consistently had more outbound tourists than inbound tourists, with the former numbering 12 million in 2008 and 12.7 million in 2011.
But by upgrading Korea’s tourism as a new growth engine through removing regulatory rigidities and developing Korea’s unique tourism contents, the number of tourist arrivals here has increased rapidly, from 6.89 million in 2008 to 9.79 million in 2011.
Korea’s goal is 20 million tourist arrivals by 2020. It is interesting to note that Asian tourist arrivals in Korea usually accounted for 80 percent of its total tourist arrivals. And the major destinations of outbound Korean tourists are Asian countries. In fact, many Asian countries have recently experienced a rapid rise in intra-Asian tourism.
With Korea’s growing pop culture, the quality of medical services and broadband and ubiquitous Internet connections, the number of Korea’s inbound tourists is likely to match that of outbound Korean tourists soon.
The country is now actively inducing foreign direct investment for tourism sector development in such areas as hotels, theme parks and resorts to prepare for the 20-million-tourist era.
Asian countries should recognize that intra-Asian tourism development involves concrete two-way traffic to generate reciprocal demand for tourism under an agreed-upon set of rules and framework.
Countries must use their diverse and rich cultural heritages and unique natural wonders while taking full advantage of geographical proximity in terms of affordable budgets and prices through mutual tourist visit programs.
Of course, to achieve sustainable tourism development, we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Cultural heritages and the natural environment must be well preserved. Asian tourism policy makers, public and private, must actively involve international collaboration and knowledge sharing at the central and local government levels and in the private sector to together design mutually beneficial tourism policies and preserve scarce man-made or natural beauties.
For example, low-cost carriers in Korea are becoming increasingly popular to meet tourism demand at affordable budgets. These carriers, coupled with an open-sky agreement among adjacent Asian economies, could promote tourism for low-income individuals.
Cross-border tourism package developments by adjacent local governments or civic societies across Asia could also greatly promote intra-Asian tourism. The trickle down effects for economic development and cultural interchange in the low-income bracket could be tremendous.
In this way, strengthened cross-border tourism connectivity in Asia has great potential to ensure common prosperity, create badly needed jobs and enhance mutual understanding among Asians toward an “Asian community.”
The writer is also a distinguished professor at Chung-Ang University