Wednesday 16 January 2019

MTCO Weekly: Happy New Year 2019 - ASEAN Tourism Forum - Mekong Mini Movie Festival - Experience Mekong Collection

From all of us at Mekong Tourism, we wish you a happy and healthy 2019. We look forward to collaborating with all of you in continuing our journey in developing and promoting the Greater Mekong Subregion as a sustainable and experiential tourism destination.

2018 has been a successful year. Having in place a solid strategic framework may also be one of the reasons that our regional transnational tourism collaboration has been recognized and showcased as a global best practice. Here are a few recent examples alone:

⁃ The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has recognized the 2016 and 2017 Mekong Tourism Forums, hosted by Laos and Thailand respectively, as global best practices for inclusive tourism.
⁃ The European Travel Commission (ETC) and UNWTO have showcased the Mekong Moments campaign as a global best practice for cross-border collaboration in a Report on Transnational Tourism Routes.
⁃ The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has awarded Mekong Moments with the PATA Gold Award this year.
⁃ The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has awarded the Mekong Mini Movie Festival campaign with the HSMAI Gold Award this year.
PATA, Google and Oxford Economics have showcased Mekong Moments and Mekong Minis as global best practices for digital transformation in tourism, alongside AirBnB, Grab, and Klook.

The 2018 Mekong Tourism Forum in Nakhon Phanom, hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand was a success. Feel free to download our MTF 2018 Handbook for free.

Please feel free to view the summary video, and view photos, and download MTF 2018 presentations.

The highlight of this year's MTF 2018 unmistakenly were the 8 Thematic Strategy Sessions in 8 community villages. Please read impressions from one delegate, blogger Kate.

The Mekong Mini Movie Festival has been a huge success, and we reached over 7 million people worldwide. Please read the case study if you are interested to learn more about this award-winning campaign. Take a look at the winners of phase 1 - the final prizes will be announced at ASEAN Tourism Forum 2019. Please join us at this exciting event at ATF 2019.

We will also announce the 2019 Mekong Mini Movie Festival, which will open on January 15, 2019. Contact us if you would like to become a partner or sponsor. Please see more information.

Also, please join us at our Mekong Tourism Press Conference at ATF on January 16th at 16:00h, and Stand G21 at Travex during ATF.

Speaking about Visual Storytelling campaigns, we also just launched the "Mekong From Above" campaign, in partnership with Knowledge Media Group, open until March 31, 2019. Please read the press release for more information.

Another program that will get more attention in 2019 is the Experience Mekong Collection. Now around a year old, the Experience Mekong Collection has almost 150 members. We are happy to announce our new Experience Mekong Collection Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/experiencemekong) to celebrate sustainable tourism and to invite anybody to nominate small responsible travel businesses in the member countries of the Mekong Region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, and PR China - Yunnan and Guangxi). On this group page, we will feature Experience Mekong Collection members, especially those that stand out when it comes to innovation and inspiration, starting with the 2018 Experience Mekong Collection showcases. Please share the group with your friends and share your favorite responsible travel experiences for consideration to be added to the Experience Mekong Collection as members. For more information and to see all current EMC members, please visit www.ExperienceMekong.org.

We also recognised the Experience Mekong Collection Showcases at Mekong Tourism Forum, a collaboration with Mahidol University to develop best practice case studies. Filter by "Showcases" to view the 2018 selection when going to www.ExperienceMekong.org. The Experience Mekong Collection Showcases case studies will be published at the upcoming Mekong Trends Report on Responsible Travel. Please see the press release with links to the case studies of the 2018 Experience Mekong Collection Showcases.

At ASEAN Tourism Forum, during our Press Conference, we will announce the 2019 Experience Mekong Collection Showcases, which were selected in collaboration with our MeTAG (Mekong Tourism Advisory Group). The 2019 Experience Mekong Collection Showcases will officially get recognized at the 2019 Mekong Tourism Forum in Dali, Yunnan (P.R. China) from May 21-22.

Finally, our Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism program (MIST) showcased the finalists of this year's competition. Congratulations to Bamboo Lao and Eco Host for shining through!. We are currently working on the 2019 MIST Program, which will witness some exciting changes and enhancements, which will make the pioneering program even more unique. Please stay tuned for announcements soon.

If you would like to find out more about our projects and initiatives, please feel free to download the 2018 Mekong Tourism Projects Summary. To get more information on our Mekong Tourism strategy, please feel free to watch our presentation at the 2nd UNWTO International Congress on World Civilizations and Historic Routes.

We look forward in collaborating with all of the travel and tourism stakeholders in the GMS. Have a great week!
Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director, MTCO

Mekong Tourism
c/o 5th Floor, Department of Tourism,
Ministry of Tourism and Sports, 154 Rama 1 Rd., National Stadium, Wangmai, Pathumwan,Bangkok, 10 10330 Thailand

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