THE Shan State capital, Taunggyi, has been chosen as the venue for a series of meetings beginning later this month for tourism officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as China, Japan, South Korea and India.

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The director general of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, U Khin Maung Latt, said similar meetings had been held in Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan and it had been decided to hold the meetings in Taunggyi to promote its facilities and attractions.

The program for the meetings, from June 28 to July 1, would include visits to Taunggyi’s Kakku Pagoda and popular nearby destinations including Inle Lake and Kalaw, U Khin Maung Latt said.

He said the meetings would discuss a range of topics including human resources development, marketing, investment and promotion and the Visit ASEAN Campaign.

The six meetings include those of the ASEAN task forces on tourism marketing, tourism investment and tourism manpower development. There will also be meetings of the ASEAN national tourism organisations, the national tourism organisations of ASEAN and its three dialogue partners, China, Japan and South Korea and the ASEAN-India tourism consultations.

In another development, U Khin Maung Latt said 1000 tourism officials and travel industry representatives will be invited to the 25th ASEAN Tourism Forum being hosted by Myanmar in early 2006.

U Khin Maung Latt, said he planned to invite travel agents from throughout the world to the forum to enable them to discuss business opportunities with their ASEAN counterparts.

“We have enough accommodation for the invitees, but we need to talk to the hotels,” said U Khin Maung Latt, U Khin Maung Latt said travel arrangements for participants were being made in cooperation with the private sector.

“It is a very big event. We cannot organise it alone, we need cooperation from the private sector and other ministries as well,” he said.

U Khin Maung Latt said the ministry planned to establish committees soon to make arrangements for the forum, including choosing a venue.

The forum promotes popular and less well-known destinations throughout Southeast Asia. It also works closely with ASEAN’s three dialogue partners, China, Japan and South Korea to promote tourism.

The 23rd forum was held last January in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, and the 24th forum will be held next January on Malaysia’s Langkawi Island.