Fourth meeting of ASEAN and India Tourism Ministers held at Vientiane

Dr K Chiranjeevi, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Tourism, Government of India has signed a protocol with Prof Dr Bosengkham Vongdara, Minister for Information, Culture and Tourism, Lao PDR, to amend the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ASEAN and India on strengthening tourism cooperation, at the fourth meeting of ASEAN and India Tourism Ministers, which was held in Vientiane, Lao PDR, in conjunction with the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2013. The protocol would further strengthen the tourism collaboration between ASEAN and Indian national tourism organisations, and thus safeguard the rights and interests of the parties with respect to national security, national and public interest or public order, protection of intellectual property rights, confidentiality and secrecy of documents, information and data. The Ministers also supported the close collaboration of ASEAN and India to enhance air, sea and land connectivity within ASEAN and between ASEAN and India through ASEAN-India connectivity project. The Ministers were also pleased with the implementation progress of the MOU in 2012 through a Familiarisation (FAM) trip of ten travel writers from ASEAN to India; visit of teachers/faculty of hospitality institutes from India to ASEAN and vice-versa for developing teaching modules and establishing student exchange programmes between the association and the country; visit of ten travel writers from India to ASEAN; FAM trip of 20 tour operators from ASEAN to India during Buddhist Conclave; and exchange visit of tour operators and travel agents between ASEAN and India. To further promote tourism exchange between ASEAN and India, the Ministers agreed to launch the ASEAN-India tourism website - www.indiaasean.org - as a platform to jointly promote tourism destinations, sharing basic information about ASEAN member states and India and a visitor guide.