Andean countries to boost community actions in the area of tourism

Lima, 28 Jan. 99. Spurred by the desire to increase Andean tourism's still small share of the international tourist market, the countries of the Andean Community agreed to take joint action in this sector, the third foreign currency generator in importance in the subregion.

Andean tourist authorities, gathered in Lima on January 26 and 27, agreed to boost joint initiatives in three areas: the implementation of tourism development projects of Community interest; the removal of barriers and obstacles to trade; and the adoption of tourist facilitation policies.

Data specified at the meeting revealed that only 3.9 million of the 600 million international tourists in 1997 had Andean Community countries as their destination; this amounts to only 0.5% of the worldwide flow and 3% of that targeting the Americas.

In a hemispheric breakdown, member countries of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas received 80.6% of the international tourists, Mercosur, 9.7%, Caricom and the Andean Community, 3% each, and the Central American Common Market, 22%.

Despite this situation, tourism is picking up in the Andean Community. Tourist service exports (incoming tourism) rose at a level of 8% a year between 1990 and 1997, almost four times the average equivalent world growth of 4.5%, according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

Tourist authorities at the meeting evaluated the work done in the past, which had been cut short in 1995. They were of the opinion that it needed to be resumed considering the headway made by integration, as reflected in the adoption of Decision 439 liberalizing the trade in services in the subregion, among other things.

"Technological advances that contribute to the cross-border provision of some services and tourist promotion via electronic means, combined with the proliferation of agreements for liberalizing the trade in services, heavily influence the structure and performance of the tourist market, a situation worth studying in order to determine what policies and actions are needed in the sector," they pointed out.