Hanoi  - South-east Asian tourism officials meeting in Hanoi are searching for ways to ease the impacts of the global economic downturn that is hurting regional tourism, a Vietnamese official said Saturday.

The number of tourists visiting many Southeast Asian countries has plunged since the advent of the global financial crisis this autumn. In Vietnam, hotels have slashed room rates by 30 per cent or more.

"This forum aims not only to help ease Vietnam's tourism problems, but also to benefit all ASEAN tourism industries, as well as those of ASEAN's partner countries, China, Japan and South Korea," said Nguyen Manh Cuong, deputy head of Vietnam's National Administration of Tourism.

Cuong said the ASEAN Tourism Forum is developing a plan for closer coordination between airlines, more regional tours across different countries, and expanded advertising. The forum has attracted over 1,500 participants from around the region.

The forum follows the 12th meeting of ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations held in Hanoi January 6-9. That meeting also emphasized the need for coordinated tour packages across the region, as well as a greater focus on young travelers.

Last year, ASEAN countries conducted promotional activities to expand their foothold in potential markets, including an agreement to establish an ASEAN-Korea center in Seoul in early 2009, the ASEAN-India conference in Myanmar last August on Buddhist pilgrimage tours, and the ASEAN Tourism Investment Forum in the Philippines last July.

ASEAN countries received 54 million foreign visitors in 2008, 7 percent more than the previous year, despite the advent of the global financial crisis and political unrest in Thailand and Myanmar.

ASEAN groups Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.(dpa)