Registration is OPEN for Mekong Tourism Forum 2017, "Prosper with Purpose".

Jens Thraenhart

To take place June 6-9 in Luang Prabang, Laos, MTF 2017 promises to deliver interactive topical sessions hosted at multiple experiential venues in and around the UNESCO World Heritage town. Indeed Luang Prabang is the venue for MTF 2017!

Yesterday we announced our keynote speaker for MTF 2017: Anna Pollock (pictured right). I could not imagine a more suitable person than Anna to address our tourism industry at MTF 2017. I worked with Anna, and was inspired by her, during my time at the Canadian Tourism Commission in the mid 2000s. I experienced first-hand one of her strengths, which is her ability to see the “big picture” and help others make sense of rapid change.

The theme of MTF 2017 is “Prosper with Purpose”. This corresponds to much of Anna's work over her 45-year career. As Founder of Conscious.Travel, Anna is currently working on models of destination development that, in her words, “generate higher yields with less impact”. She believes that for tourism to thrive it must "provide much higher levels of satisfaction to the customer, more net benefit to the host community, and sustained yields to shareholders”.

Anna will deliver her keynote speech, entitled "Passion + Purpose = Prosperity", at 10:30am on June 8 at Luang Prabang’s Central Bank building ... Read more about it.

In partnership with our hosts, the Ministry of Information, Culture, & Tourism, Lao PDR and the Department of Information, Culture, & Tourism, Luang Prabang, Mekong Tourism is keen to demonstrate that smaller towns can compete for MICE. We are doing this by inviting small- and medium-sized stakeholders to host sessions. Soon we will announce our eight-track program of 16 breakthrough sessions and their Host Venues. The breakthrough sessions will take place in and around Luang Prabang during the afternoons of June 7 & 8 — after MTF’s opening ceremonies, keynote speeches, and keynote panel discussions in the mornings and the included networking lunches.

Registration is OPEN. And the capacity for each breakthrough session is limited. So register early to secure a spot in the sessions you are most interested in.

We look forward to hearing from you as always, and hope you enjoy this week's newsletter. And remember: sharing is caring.

Have a great week!
Jens Thraenhart
Executive Director, MTCO