(Bandar Seri Begawan, 31st) Brunei’s Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism, Dato Seri Setia Dr. Haji Abdul Manaf, led the Brunei delegation to attend the 29th ASEAN Tourism Ministers’ Meeting (M-ATM) and related meetings held from the 29th to 30th of this month in Cebu City, Philippines, in conjunction with the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF 2026).
According to a statement released by the Tourism Development Department under the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Tutiaty, and several Tourism Development Department officials also attended the meeting.
Prior to the ministerial meeting, the 63rd Meeting of ASEAN National Tourism Organizations (NTO) and Senior Officials Meetings with dialogue partners were held. The meetings focused on the positive recovery trends in ASEAN’s tourism industry, with preliminary data showing the number of visitors has reached about 144 million, continuing an upward trajectory. This growth is attributed to strengthened regional connectivity, the launch of diversified tourism products, and reinforced joint marketing initiatives.
The meeting also reviewed the progress of implementing the ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2016–2025, which aims to position ASEAN as a high-quality and sustainable tourism destination, and summarized key achievements, including joint regional tourism marketing and promotion activities, ASEAN tourism standards best practices exchange programs, and the implementation of the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Tourism Professionals (MRA-TP), designed to enhance the competitiveness of tourism human resources.
As the existing strategic plan is coming to an end, the meeting formally adopted the “ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2026–2030 (ATSP)” and “ASEAN Tourism Marketing Strategy 2026–2030 (ATMS)” as guiding frameworks for future collective action to strengthen branding, narrative building, and raise ASEAN’s visibility on the international stage.
The new plan will focus on five key areas: tourism workforce empowerment, convenient and seamless travel, digital tourism, product and market diversification, and sustainable development, to promote resilient tourism growth.
The meeting also expressed appreciation to dialogue partners such as China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Russia for their longstanding support, and called on them to continue assisting with the implementation of ATSP and ATMS.
In his speech at the meeting, Manaf emphasized the importance of improving service quality and the supply of tourism products, and pointed out that cross-sector cooperation, especially collaboration with the transportation sector, is crucial for strengthening tourism coordination.
He also noted that Brunei is actively deepening people-to-people exchanges and promoting tourism flows with dialogue partners, and emphasized the important roles played by the ASEAN-China Centre, ASEAN-Japan Centre, and ASEAN-Korea Centre in supporting regional and Brunei’s capacity building.
Brunei will work closely with the aforementioned ASEAN centres to promote original, educational, and environmentally-responsible community and agro-tourism projects, while also strengthening the development of natural eco, cultural, and heritage tourism destinations to move towards international recognition.
In addition, the ASEAN Tourism Conference held during the ASEAN Tourism Forum also provided a platform for discussing various projects and activities under the ATSP framework.
Overall, these initiatives demonstrate how national-level actions can robustly support ASEAN’s collective goal of building a resilient, inclusive, and future-ready regional tourism ecosystem.