In a strong affirmation of support for tourism to and within the ASEAN region, exhibitors and buyers scheduled to attend the ASEAN Tourism (ATF) 2005 in Langkawi from 21-29 January are still participating as planned. Malaysia Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Leo Michael Toyad has cleared doubts about the event by reiterating that Langkawi, struck by the December 26 tsunami, is all ready to host ATF.

After visiting the island to meet industry players involved with ATF, conduct site inspections of ATF venues and obtain first-hand knowledge of Langkawi’s situation, he said Langkawi was back to normal and everything on the island was functioning as usual.

Hotels are fully operational, power and telephone systems fully restored and ferry and air services operating as usual – a message the tourism ministry has passed to ATF delegates. Perhaps it is one that the trade should also broadcast to the travelling public as well.

The minister revealed that 1,600 people from over 50 countries, including about 130 ministerial and senior officials and 100 media representatives, have confirmed their participation in ATF.

To date, all the 519 booths have been sold to 400 ASEAN seller organisations represented by more than 900 seller delegates. About 400 buyers from major markets worldwide have also confirmed their participation.

Meanwhile, many major tour operators and hotel groups in the affected countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and India are supplementing the official bulletins issued by government and non-government sources with their own updates to clients and the trade overseas.

Some companies, like East West Siam, have set up a special section in their website to provide foreign operators and visitors with updates about the operational status of the properties in Phuket and the situation on the ground. For instance, East West's "Thailand Tsunami Update" has hotel details as well as pictures taken last week (4 January 2005) of popular beaches and tourist areas that are unaffected. (See http://www.ewsiam.com/update.html)