MTCO Weekly: ITB Berlin Recap

Last week was ITB Berlin week, and the greater Mekong Tourism team, including representatives from the six tourism ministries, their secretariat Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), and the public-private partnership framework Destination Mekong were represented at the largest travel trade show in the world.

Generously supported by ITB Berlin, the 2nd MEKONG@ITB Seminar with a focus on Innovation in Tourism Marketing Collaboration, successfully attracted a big crowd, which means good exposure for the member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion. Organised for the Mekong Tourism Working Group (tourism ministries of the six GMs member countries) by its secretariat the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), and produced by the public-private partnership Destination Mekong, a panel of public and private sector representatives discussed how the member countries have been working together in promoting the region.

Finally Thailand invited the tourism industry to Nakhon Phanom for the 2018 Mekong Tourism Forum. The good news: ITB Berlin already confirmed us for the 3rd MEKONG@ITB Forum at ITB Berlin 2019. We already started having discussions with partners about interesting and important themes for next year.

The Mekong Mini Movie Festival, the first regional tourism marketing campaign is live with some amazing and inspirational 1-Minute Mekong Movies coming in, hosted a screening of some the most inspirational videos, together with the Myanmar Tourism Federation at the Myanmar stand at ITB Berlin.

Kindly supported by GIZ, Mekong Tourism had a home this year at the "CLMV - 4 Countries, 1 Destinations" stand. MTCO also supported the Myanmar press conference, as well as events by Cambodia and Lao PDR.

Finally, a little tip for those that want to secure a seat at the 2018 Mekong Tourism Forum in Nakhon Phanom from June 26-29 - online registrations just have opened last week. Get an overview of the highlights and the program at MTF 2018, featuring the second year of MIST, and the first year of the Mekong Mini Movie Festival, the Mekong Tourism Village Experience, and the half-day Conference on Transformative Travel, including a session on Buddhist Tourism, chaired by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand.

Finally, don't forget to tag your photos you upload to your own social media accounts (i.e. Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) with #MekongMoments, get involved in our Mekong Tourism Contributor Program to share articles, documents, and events, and nominate responsible travel businesses for the Experience Mekong Collection. And if you are a travel startup, get involved in MIST. Download our Mekong Tourism Overview to get more details about many of our projects and initiatives. My colleague Mr. Ton and I, as well as the team at Destination Mekong look forward to working with you.

That's it for our weekly update. We look forward to hearing from you as always. If you ever missed one of our newsletter - no worries, they are all archived on MekongTourism.org.

Have a great week!
Jens Thraenhart
Executive Director, MTCO