Mekong River MTCO Weekly

We would like to wish all our partners and stakeholders "A Happy Lunar New Year of the Dog". 

Last week we had a successful launch of the 2018 edition of the Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) Program at the dtac co-working space in Bangkok. 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. 

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". Please RSVP at https://mekongtourism.splashthat.com.

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