Korea Attends 3rd APEC Tourism Ministers Meeting
- Plays leading role as initiator of the global event

The 3rd Tourism Ministers Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference(APEC) took place in Punta Arenas in Chile Oct.12-16 to take up the current issues in the region's tourism and the development of the tourism industry.

The annual conference was set up under the proposal of South Korea in 2000 and this year's meeting took place with the main theme of "One Community, Our Future," and a tourism theme of "Exploring Our Diversity."

All the results of what had been discussed at the meeting were included in a declaration called "Patagonia Declaration" with the signatures of all 21 ministers who attended the event in Chile.

At the gathering, four policy objectives raised in the APEC Tourism Charter Seoul Declaration were reviewed  with proposals by participating ministers on new challenges  following the resolution of Mexico Mansana Declaration.

Participating ministers exchanged opinions on spurring tourism among members countries in the region through Minister's Retreat.

Korea became ,along with New Zealand, a member of the Policy Objective 3 Working Group and reported tourism studies made in the APEC region and the progress of the establishment of a foundation headquarter for a joint project with the World Tourism Organization(WTO) entitled, "Sustainable Tourism & Eliminating Poverty."

The APEC Tourism Ministers Conference had its first meeting in 2000 in Seoul with 21 ministers and held every two years in different countries designed to expand and develop tourism industries in the APEC member countries.

The ministry of culture and tourism said Korea will continue to pay a leading role both as the host country for 2005 APEC summit and the initiator of the APEC Tourism Ministers Conference to firm up the image of a tourism Korea on the international stage.   nw