COLOMBO: The second working group meeting on tourism of SAARC countries takes special significance this year since 2006 has been declared by the heads of SAARC States as "South Asia Tourism Year".

The working group will review the progress of the projects agreed upon at the last meeting and re-formulate a plan of action to be implemented in the years ahead.

The inaugural session of the second working group meeting on tourism of SAARC countries took place at the Taj Samudra Hotel yesterday.

Dr. P. Ramanujam, Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism said: "South Asia has great potential in tourism. It can play a significant role in the economic development of the region."

"Collective endeavours would take us on the right path. This is ideal for us to review our work and maximise opportunities to promote South Asia as a viable destination to international and inter-regional tourists," Dr. Ramanujam said.

Director SAARC Secretariat Amjad Hussain speaking thanked the Government for arranging the meeting and emphasised the need for better co-ordination between SAARC countries. The development of infrastructure and joint tour packages should be used to maximise potential, Hussain added.

"In the last calendar year there had been 800 million tourists worldwide who had spent $ 600 billion, which means a daily expenditure of $ 2 billion. As you can see the potential is enormous. The SAARC region only gets a fraction of this mammoth amount at the moment so we have to plan to maximise our resources with a collective and aggressive programme," Chairman SCCI Tourism Council Pradip Madhavji said.

Madhavji praised the Sri Lankan Government's initiative to have a separate counter at the airport to issue visas for travellers from SAARC countries and appealed to other countries to follow suit. He appealed to all member countries to consider common driving licences for all countries. "We have to improve air connectivity in the region and formulate new policies regarding visa approval," Madhavji said.

Madhajiv further added: "We have to use our common culture, history, food and sports to attract tourists to the region, whether it is Sanath Jayasuriya or Rahul Dravid, people would come a long way to watch these entertainers. We have to use these mega sports figures as ambassadors to bat for tourism."