Regional tourism summit underway in Davao

DAVAO CITY (AFP) — Some 2,500 delegates gathered in this southern city Friday for a Southeast Asian tourism conference that will be led by tourism ministers, organizers said.

Ministers of the member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will start arriving this weekend for the two-week forum that opens tomorrow, said Art Boncato, an official of the forum hosts.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Delegates from the tourism agencies of Japan, South Korea, China and India are also scheduled to meet their ASEAN counterparts at the forum, which will include trade exhibits and business meetings.

Local officials have assured that security during the forum will be tight despite a series of bombings and mass kidnappings by Muslim extremists linked to the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah networks in the southernmost islands.

The tourism industry in Southeast Asia has been buffeted in recent years due to incidents such as bombings, natural disasters and outbreaks of diseases like bird flu.