Secretary General Long Yongtu made the remarks in the opening speech of the International Cooperation for Tourism Development Under a New Paradigm Conference held in Hong Kong.

He said participants should also raise the crisis awareness of government and business sectors so as to be prepared to address the implications cased by all kinds of crisis on economic sectors including tourism.

The two-day conference, jointly sponsored by Boao Forum for Asia and the World Tourism Organization, aims at helping recover people's confidence in tourism and strengthen the cooperation in Asia as well as in the world.

Over 1,000 high level tourism officials, tourism professionals, experts and scholars from nearly 30 countries and regions are attending the conference.

Long said the global politics and economy is easily to be affected when a sudden crisis takes places in one country or a region. The just past severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has had profound impacts on all economic sectors including tourism.

"This conference provides us an opportunity not only to discuss SARS and tourism, but also to discuss how to address such crisis in this globalized world, and to discuss how the international community could strengthen cooperation to tide over such crisis," he said.

Long said he is very pleased that Hong Kong was chosen as the location of this conference, adding that Hong Kong will be full of attractiveness after SARS and hundreds of thousands of tourists will come back to Hong Kong and this region soon.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2003)