Tourism ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations began a two-day meeting on Malaysia's Langkawi island on how to revive their industry. This latest tourism setback, follows others which arose from fears about to avian flu, SARS and terrorism.

Thousands of foreign tourists died when the December 26 tsunami swept coastlines in Asia and Africa, killing between 162,000 and 228,000 people in 11 countries.

"There's a feeling of grief, sadness and fear among tourists right now, but our assurance is that we're taking steps to make our beaches safer, like creating a tsunami early warning system," said Malaysian Tourism Minister Leo Michael Toyad in a speech.

ASEAN members will co-operate to promote their region as "one big tourism destination," inviting international travel writers to attractive destinations and sending out video clips overseas to lure potential visitors, Mr Toyad said.

Tourism is a big money-earner for Southeast Asia. Before the tsunami, the ASEAN Tourism Association expected nearly 50 million tourists to visit this year, with the number projected to rise to 56 million in 2006. Tourism generated 27.7 billion dollars (£17.7 billion) for ASEAN in 2002 - excluding Brunei - or 4.8% of its gross domestic product.

Khirk-Krai Jirapaet, Thailand's deputy tourism minister, said he was optimistic that this week's conference would help limit the fallout from the December 26 tsunami.

"This is the first time we're meeting after the tsunami, so we have to come out with some decisions," he said.

The ministers also will meet with senior tourism officials from China, Japan and South Korea tomorrow to co-ordinate new measures to jointly speed up the development of the region's travel industry.

The meeting is being held on the sidelines of a forum of about 1,700 delegates from 55 countries, mainly representing tourism organisations, airline companies, travel agents and hoteliers hoping to lure travellers with new offers and bargains.