JOHOR BARU: The Asean member countries have unanimously agreed to form a partnership with Australia to promote deeper tourism ties.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry secretary-general Datuk Wira Roslan Abdul Rahman said the matter is in the pipeline following the agreement of the Asean tourism ministers.
“One of the information that was discussed among the Asean ministers was to have another dialogue partner on top of countries like Japan, China, South Korea, Russia Federation and India to develop tourism.
“We have planned and presented the reasons why it is timely for Asean and Australia to have this tourism collaboration.
“Malaysia has pushed for this, and all the other Asean ministers have agreed to it,” he told the media during the sidelines of the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) 2025 at a hotel in the heart of the city on Monday (Jan 20).
Roslan said forming a dialogue partnership with Australia makes sense for the Asean bloc geographically.
“Although Australian tourists are already visiting Asean countries, we want to form a stronger partnership and see what other tourism products we can offer them.
“Hopefully, talks with Australia will also address existing issues, including difficulties for Malaysians entering the country,” he added.
Besides that, Roslan said the Asean ministers also discussed promoting secondary and tertiary tourism destinations to avoid over-tourism.
“The ministers discussed opening up less popular destinations rather than just focusing on one or two areas,” he said.
The ATF, which started on Jan 15, ends today.