On 26 January 2018, the Closing Ceremony of the 37th ASEAN Tourism Forum in conjunction with ASEAN Tourism Awarding Ceremony was held in Chiang Mai. Tourism Ministers and delegates of ASEAN Member States, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN Secretariat, the leaders of international and regional organizations, delegates of tourism industry and media attended the ceremony. H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), attended the ceremony upon invitation.

H.E. Mr. Weerasak Kowsurat, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand expressed his sincere appreciation to all of the parties for the strong support to ATF 2018 in his closing remarks. He said that under the theme of “ASEAN-Sustainable Connectivity, Boundless Prosperity”, participants in the forum conducted in-depth communication and exchanges, held a series of vivid activities and achieved positive results. ASEAN was committed to promoting the sustainable development of tourism industry. It looked forward to deepening exchanges and cooperation with all parties, firmly pushing forward the established goals, building a more attractive and quality single tourism destination, and injecting more powerful impetus into the ASEAN community building.

H.E. Mr. Ngvyen Ngoc Thien, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Viet Nam, delivered acceptance remarks as the Chairman of the 38th ASEAN Tourism Forum. He said that Viet Nam has actively developed the tourism industry. In 2017, the number of inbound tourists topped 13 million, which made Viet Nam become one of the fastest growing tourism markets in the world. Viet Nam would strengthen coordination with all parties, and make preparations for the next ASEAN Tourism Forum. It would make positive contributions to the development of ASEAN and regional tourism industry, and expect all parties to participate actively.

At the ASEAN Tourism Awarding Ceremony, Minister Weerasak presented awards to H.E. Mm. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ACC, H.E. Mr. Masataka Fujita, Secretary-General of ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC),H.E. Mr. Kim Young-sun, Secretary-General of ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC), and other ASEAN partners for the outstanding contributions to the “Visit ASEAN@50-Golden Celebration” programme and promoting the development of the ASEAN tourism industry. The tourism ministers and delegates of ASEAN Member States presented awards to the outstanding representatives of their own tourism industry in a warm atmosphere.