ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2022, hosted by Cambodia, will take place from January 16 to 22, 2022 along with the meeting of ASEAN National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) and physical Meeting of ASEAN Tourism Ministers.
A miniature TRAVEX travel fair has also been planned for during the meeting in Sihanoukville.
Themed “ASEAN - A Community of Peace and Shared Future”, ATF 2022 echoes the vision of tourism playing a key role to foster a unified and collaborative ASEAN. Tourism sows the seeds of a shared future of peace that can bring about economic growth, social and cultural development and progress in the region.
The ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) is a cooperative regional effort to promote the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as one tourist destination. This annual event involves all the tourism industry sectors of the 10 member states of ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
ATF was established in 1981. Each year, the hosting of ATF is rotated among the member countries.
"2022 marks 41 years of active collaboration between ASEAN member states to promote Southeast Asia as a single destination and drive the region’s sustainable travel and tourism sector. It is with great pride that we host this significant milestone in Cambodia – Kingdom of Wonder," said Dr Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, Cambodia.
"Tourism plays an increasingly important role in Cambodia's national, economic and social development. It is our top priority to build and develop the necessary tourism infrastructure to help drive this industry forward. We have sensibly invested in pro-poor, sustainable and responsible community-based tourism development projects in north-eastern provinces in partnership with international organisations and development partners such as ADB, UNWTO and SNV. We believe this will create positive results analogous to global and regional tourism development trends for the present and in the future, and more importantly, sustain ASEAN tourism’s contribution towards the realisation of ASEAN integration goals in 2025," Dr Thong said.