MTCO Weekly

This week, we spoke to students at Mahidol University as start of an exciting partnership to create responsible tourism case studies to showcase the most innovative responsible operators in the Experience Mekong Collection (www.ExperienceMekong.org). The first six Experience Mekong Showcases (one of each of the GMS countries) will be presented at Mekong Tourism Forum in Nakhon Phanom in June 26-29 at the Gala Dinner. The Experience Mekong Showcase will be an annual selection of innovative responsible businesses in the GMS, written up as case studies to build capacity and inspire other businesses to learn and become more responsible and sustainable. Please nominate your favorite responsible travel experiences at www.MekongResponsibleTravel.org.

Any startups interested in being part of the 2018 edition of the Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) Program, 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, and applications close 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@ITB session 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 26th 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