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Minister of State for Tourism, Ms. Renuka Chowdhury has been invited to chair emergency task force meeting of Executive Council of World Tourism Organisation at Phuket, Thailand on January 31, 2005 to assess the tourism situation in South East Asia after Tsunami.
The meeting will be attended by the 29 member States of the Council, Tsunami affected countries, countries generating tourism for the region, representatives of travel and tourism industry, multi-lateral and bilateral donor agencies and tourism experts from all over the world. After the assessment of the situation on the ground and detailed discussions, the meeting will suggested a plan of action for recovery of tourism in the region. The plan will be considered by the full meeting of Executive Council of the WTO next day.
Meanwhile, WTO has called upon national Governments to draft travel advisories concerning Asian destinations in a careful and responsible manner, taking into account that the disaster only affected pockets of an enormous area and also withdraw warnings in time once the situation is improved. It has also called upon donors’ community to help reconstruct the tourism infrastructure in the affected area.
NCJ/DT/rel-28jan-WTO
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