Tourism officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Saturday called on the international community to avoid indiscriminately advising their citizens to refrain from visiting Asia because of the terrorist bombing in Jakarta of Indonesia.

In a joint statement released in Beijing, the officials strongly condemned the terrorist bombing at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in Indonesia on Aug. 5.

Tourism ministers and officials from ten ASEAN members and China, Japan and ROK attended on Saturday a special meeting addressing the negative impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on the regional tourism industry.

The meeting readjusted its tight schedule to include a broad discussion on the impact of the terrorist bombing in Jakarta on regional tourism.

In the statement, the ministers condemned the terrorist act as a heinous and ruthless crime against humanity and a crime against all religions that should be condemned by all religions.

He Guangwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration, said that the joint statement targeted not only the tragic incident in Jakarta, but all terrorist activities.

"Security is the fundamental thing for our tourism industry," he said. "We issued the joint statement in the interests of creating a secure environment for tourism."

"We express profound sympathy, solidarity and support to the Indonesian Government for whatever steps they take to bring to book these international criminals and murderers and eradicate terrorism," the ministers said in the joint statement.

Indonesian Minister of Culture and Tourism Thamrin Bachri said the tourism ministers discussed measures to enhance security and prevent terrorist attacks on the Asian tourist industry. The suggested measures included sharing information among the ASEAN member countries and China, Japan and ROK, and closer coordination between tourism authorities and other government agencies, he said.

Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of Singapore Tourism Board Lim Liang Chiang said ASEAN countries would never be intimidated by terrorism and scale down their efforts to accelerate recovery of regional tourism industry.

Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN Tran Duc Minh said ASEAN countries and China, Japan and ROK agreed to stage joint promotion activities to the outside world. The promotion activities were designed to let the world know the effective measures that the region had taken to prevent terrorist attack and other risks such as SARS.

"We solemnly declare to the world that tourism in our region has returned to normal, the safety and well-being of tourists to our region from all over the world is safeguarded and protected," the ministers said in a statement under the title "Beijing Declaration on Revitalizing Tourism for ASEAN, China, Japan and ROK."

(China Daily August 10, 2003)