The observation came at the 5th Tourism Working Group Meeting of South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) in Dhaka yesterday.

Bangladesh Parjatan Corpor-ation and Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB) jointly organised the two-day discussion to find out potential of tourism in the regional cooperation.

The meeting also observed difficulties of visa process and border formalities and lack of facilities such as telephone, rest rooms, restaurant, refueling stations and medical centers are the main obstacles to attracting tourists in this region.

State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin spoke as chief guest at the meeting.

Representatives from Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh and officials from WTO, UNESCAP, ADB, PATA attended the meeting.

Public and private sector collaboration is needed for promoting tourism in every SASEC country, the meeting was told.

Hau Du, officer in charge of ADB Bangladesh Development Mission, said SASEC can lead to build a cooperative forum among the states in this region.

She also stressed the need of developing human resources through proper training to get the untapped potential of tourism.

From 1950 to 2000, tourism sector of the world grew by 7 percent, said Harsh Varma, chief of Technical Cooperation, World Trade Organization (WTO).

Realising the importance of tourism, he asked the SASEC members to take initiatives for diversifying their tourism products.

Bhoj Raj Ghimire, secretary, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal, Dasho Karma Dorjee, secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Bhutan, Renu Jain, undersecretary, Ministry of Tourism of India, Peter De Jong, president and CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), also spoke at the meeting.