During the plenary session of the ongoing International Cooperation for Tourism Development Under A New Paradigm conference, nine speakers voiced their will for multi-layered effective cooperation among countries and regions in the Asian Pacific region.

Thai Tourism Minister Sontaya Kunplome said tourism is a sensitive industry and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic has reduced the number of arrivals to Thailand by 20-25 percent in the first half of this year.

He said, in the past, each country had to encounter with the crisis, either a terrorist attack, an epidemic, or natural disasters by itself. The effective control of SARS indicated the necessity for regional or global cooperation in fight against the crisis.

Toshihiro Nikai, chairman of All Nippon Travel Agents, said the tourism industry has shown a remarkable development in various areas in the globe since the latter half of the 20th century and has also become one of the pillar industries for Japan.

He said 4 million Japanese are serving for tourism industry so far. Japan is ready to cooperate with Asian countries in promoting domestic and regional tourism.

The speakers not only urged closer regional tourism cooperation, but also gave publicity of their countries' tourism industry.

Verdinejad Fereydoun, ambassador of Iran to China, said his country has drafted short, medium and long term tourism development plans and welcomed the participation of foreign public or private sectors.

Richard Gordon, secretary of tourism of the Philippines, said facing the possible crisis in the future, Asian countries should make early possible strategy to coordinate their efforts and push ahead with tourism industry.

He said the convening of the conference is not only of great importance for the revitalizing of the Asian tourism, but also of importance to the poverty relief in the developing countries.

The speakers also expressed their will to strengthen communication in crisis, marketing, security and market analysis, in an effort to maintain a steady and sustainable development of the regional tourism industry.

The two-day conference will be closed Tuesday.

（Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2003）