Dear Mekong Tourism Stakeholder,
We have exciting news for all startups in the Mekong Region and abroad: The 2018 edition of our Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism Accelerator Program (MIST) is now open, and we have a few launch events coming up. Join us this Wednesday on February 7th at 10am in Bangkok at DTAC Accelerate, on February 8th at 17:30 in Phnom Penh, and on February 23rd at 18:30 in Vientiane. All are welcome, from startups, media, as well as travel and tourism companies. 2017 was a successful first year for MIST, and we are looking to making MIST even more valuable in 2018. Hope to see many of you there.
For the first time, the MIST Startup Accelerator is welcoming applications from tourism, hospitality, and travel tech startups headquartered in Thailand as well as from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam. The Startup Accelerator provides support to early-stage companies with innovative and scalable business models. Its 2018 cohort will close to applications on March 10, 2018.
Continuing our focus on sustainable tourism in the GMS, last week we were invited to present on the "Effects of Climate Change and Over-tourism on Tourism Development in the Mekong Region at the 5th GMS Environment Ministers' Meeting. See a few of the slides by clicking on the image below.
For anybody attending ITB Berlin in March, we are happy to announce that we were just confirmed that we will have our 2nd Mekong Tourism Forum at ITB Berlin on March 8th at 11am. After our successful 1st Mekong Tourism Forum at ITB Berlin last year with the theme "Human Capital Development", this year the theme will be "Innovations in Tourism Marketing Collaboration - leveraging the power of Social Commerce".
At the recent ASEAN Tourism Forum, we officially launched the first regional tourism marketing campaign in the GMS - the Mekong Mini Movie Festival. We hope many of you share their experiences in mini movie format, and encourage your guests and staff to do the same. Prizes for country categories will be given out at the Mekong Tourism Forum in Nakhon Phanom during our Mekong Minis Movie Festival on June 27th when we screen the finalists. As part of the campaign, we also look to raise awareness of the endangered Irrawaddy Dolphins. Don't miss to be part of our tourism marketing movement in the GMS, and please spread the word. Watch the mini movie introducing the Mekong Minis.
We look forward to hearing from you as always, and hope you enjoy this third newsletter in 2018.
Have a great week!
Jens Thraenhart
Executive Director, MTCO
|
|
News & Articles of the Week
News & articles that caught our attention over the past week:
Now in its second year a programme to support tourism start-ups in the Mekong region will launch, 7 February, at a press briefing in Bangkok. Known as the Mekong Innovation Startups in Tourism (MIST) the initiative is the brainchild of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office. ... Read more about it.
The outlook for travel within Southeast Asia is bright and tasty. The recent 37th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) saw the region’s tourism ministers express optimism on growing the sector in 2018 onwards, coming from milestones achieved by 2017’s VisitASEAN@50 campaign. ... Read more about it.
The sixth Thai-Lao friendship bridge across Mekong River is currently going through feasibility study and design process, said a Thai government official on Thursday. ... Read more about it.
Khiri Travel Cambodia says direct air services between Cambodia and Vietnam’s capital cities were long overdue, a comment made after Lanmei Airlines established a Phnom Penh-Hanoi route last month. ... Read more about it.
PATA is rallying support for a campaign to raise awareness about food waste and challenge the travel industry – particularly the hospitality sector – to reduce food waste to landfill. The main activities in the BUFFET (Building an Understanding For Food Excess in Tourism) initiative will include raising awareness of food waste. ... Read more about it.
China is helping develop the tourism industry in the region of an ethnic minority in Yunnan Province. The Wa people mainly reside in the counties of Cangyuan and Ximeng in southwest China’s Yunnan on the China-Myanmar border. Much ancient culture and tradition is well preserved among the ethnic group. ... Read more about it.
Ho Chi Minh City will see a sharp increase in MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) tourists in 2018, according to the local Department of Tourism. The director of the city’s department, Bui Ta Hoang Vu, said the city would welcome two large MICE groups consisting of 4,000 people in May alone. ... Read more about it.
Three-quarters of a century after the Imperial Japanese Army began its infamous “Death Railway” between Thailand and Burma — now Myanmar — the two countries are at work on a new transport link with a much brighter mission: Giving Southeast Asia’s hottest economies better access than ever to the world’s fastest-emerging markets. ... Read more about it.
To nominate a destination that you think deserves recognition for their sustainability achievements, please e-mail top100@greendestinations.org. The deadline for 'early bird' nominations is February 18. ... Read more about it.
FEATURED MEMBER OF THE EXPERIENCE MEKONG COLLECTION: MIRA TRAVELS – YANGON, MYANMAR
Mira Travels & Enterprises (Mira Travels) is a Yangon based destination management company with operations in inbound, domestic, outbound, business travel and MICE. For years, Mria Travels have served its customers to enjoy their tailor-made travel experiences while helping them to create a positive impacts on lives of local communities they visited by means of community based tourism activities. ... Read more about it.
|
|
Recent Additions to the Mekong Tourism e-Library
Value proposition of CEP is based on regional program with a track-record on knowledge management, policy and regulatory advisory. ... Download for free.
GMS TOURISM SECTOR STRATEGY 2016-2025
In 2004-2005, at the request of the GMS TWG and with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the first GMS Tourism Sector Strategy (GMS TSS) was formulated. In 2016, the GMS TWG updated the document to guide subregional tourism cooperation through 2025. ... Download for free.
|
|
MTCO Seeks e-Library Contributions
In addition to economic reports, statistical analyses, industry studies, and much more, the Mekong Tourism e-Library hosts contributions in the following new categories:
Multi-Country Journeys & Mekong River Cruises
Tour and cruise operators offering multi-destination tours and cruises (defined as tours or cruises that visit more than one Mekong-region country) are welcome to send their eligible itineraries in PDF format. The objective is to develop a resource for those seeking Mekong experiences for their customers (or themselves).
Tourism Development Projects
Economic development agencies (bilateral or multilateral) and non-government organisations (NGOs) are encouraged to send, in PDF format, scopes of work, terms of reference, reports, and case studies pertaining to tourism-related projects in the Mekong region. The objective is to develop a resource for all Mekong tourism stakeholders.
|
|
MTCO Seeks Tourism Experts
Subject matter experts, such as consultants, executives, and industry journalists, who are active in GMS travel & tourism, are eligible to become “Mekong Tourism Experts“. In return for regular (non-exclusive) business-, trade- or policy-related content, Experts will receive a range of profile-enhancing benefits ... View and register.
|
|
MTCO Seeks Travel Storytellers
MTCO welcomes anyone with a passion for storytelling who wishes to share their unique and unusual travel experiences: multi-destination Mekong journeys and experiences linked to social, cultural, or environmental causes. In return for regular content, Storytellers will receive a range of profile-enhancing benefits ... View and register.
|
|
|
Mekong Tourism is a collaborative effort between Cambodia, China, Lao, Myanmar, Thailand,
and Vietnam to promote the Greater Mekong Subregion as a single tourism destination.
|
|
|
|
|
