BKK Post / 3 August 1998 Travel Monitor Thailand set to become gateway to Mekong region Imtiaz Muqbil Thailand's position as the travel and tourism gateway of the Greater Mekong subregion is set to be enhanced by the opening of more border checkpoints in the near future with Laos and Burma. Officials from Laos, Burma, Vietnam and Cambodia all announced plans to relax frontier and visa formalities last week at a seminar organised by the World Tourism Organisation and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap). The commitments follow a recent Thai announcement that visa formalities would be relaxed for people of Yunnan province in southern China, who could visit up to nine northern Thai provinces with only an entry/exit pass. The opening of more regional border crossings will go a long way toward positioning the Mekong region as one of the world's top tourism destinations. It will also give further impetus to the Asean Tourism Action Plan, which will be announced formally after the Asean summit in Hanoi in December. Thailand has often complained, and did so again at the Phuket seminar, that of the 26 border-crossing checkpoints it has with its neighbours, including Malaysia, only six are open to international tourists. Of these, three are on the Thai-Malaysian border and three on the Thai-Laos border. Only one is accessible by car via the Friendship bridge. This represents a huge impediment to promoting intra-regional travel and retards the realisation of the region's true tourism potential. However, with competition for tourist dollars now increasing, security concerns abating somewhat and regional airlines unable to provide the necessary capacity, opening up road travel is the best option. Laos is taking the lead. Having declared a Visit Laos Year 1999-2000, the landlocked country is seeking to become linked via road corridors with Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Sannya Abhay, deputy director-general of the Tourism Authority in Vientiane, said that this year, international checkpoints would be opened between Champassak and Ubon Ratchathani, Khammouane and Nakhon Phanom, and Sayaboury and Nan. He said exact dates would be fixed later. Htay Aung, general manager of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism for Burma, noted that his government had similar plans to open more border checkpoints for international crossings. Burma's Tourism Development Management Committee declared on July 2 that it had a policy "to open up the borders, especially in eastern and southern parts of the country, with Thailand for package tour groups in order to get into the major destinations with visas or on-arrival visas at the entry points". Burma has three border checkpoints with Thailand, but very restricted crossings for international tourists are allowed only at Mae Sai in Chiang Rai. Htay Aung indicated that would be expanded and crossings made more flexible. So Mara, director-general of Cambodian Tourism, noted that his country shared two border crossings with Thailand, at Cham Yeam and Preah Vihear. Easing travel across these and other checkpoints has long been discussed. Once the results of the election are clear, he promised that this would be the first issue he would take up with the authorities. Duong Xuan Hoi, deputy director of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, also said that efforts were under way to facilitate visa processing but offered no promises about when any changes may be made. Thailand is more excited by the prospects of building links with Laos, which is eminently more politically stable than either Cambodia or Burma. The country fits in well with plans to develop tour packages incorporating southern China. Burma is also critical for onward travel to the west. It is the first chokepoint on the Asian Highway network which envisages the possibility that people will one day be able to travel from Singapore to London by road. The other problem is war-torn Afghanistan. It became clear during last week's seminar that there was greater realisation of the immense potential of road travel, especially in the wake of presentations by four landlocked countries: Laos, Nepal, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. In all four, visitors by air constitute the largest percentage of arrivals, but promoting road travel allows all those countries to piggyback on each others' tourism potential, especially where there is one major gateway country through which visitors can be channelled. The Laos-Thailand link is a clear example of that. Santichai Euachongprasit of the Tourism Authority of Thailand noted that Thailand had visa-free or visa-on-arrival facilities for citizens of 154 countries. Consequently there was a large core of people who could move on seamlessly to other Mekong countries if similar facilities were available there. As they are not, people move on to Singapore or Hong Kong, where many require no visas. There is also the realisation that airlines can help only to a certain extent. Many participants voiced frustration at having to constantly negotiate with the national airline and aviation authorities for more seat capacity. This problem is overcome entirely by opening up road travel. However, road-travel plans face both hardware and software concerns. In many countries, roads are in terrible condition with little signage, rest and recreation facilities or medical or police help. Road laws are also a long way from being harmonised. In some countries, security is a major problem. Until these issues are overcome, regional countries have to continue to facilitate air travel. Luang Prabang airport in Laos is now open to small-scale international traffic. Direct flights have been opened to Siem Reap in Cambodia, and Burma is developing its airport in Mandalay to take international flights. At all these airports, the trend is to start providing on-arrival facilities for citizens of those countries that need visas. Security officers can't seem to let go of visa requirements entirely.