2018 MEKONG TOURISM PROJECTS SUMMARY MEKONG TOURISM COORDINATING OFFICE

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1 2018 MEKONG TOURISM PROJECTS SUMMARY MEKONG TOURISM COORDINATING OFFICE 1

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4 Mekong Tourism Initiatives aligned to the GMS Tourism Sector Strategy In working with the tourism ministries of the six-member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), the MTCO helps to build digital capacity in tourist destinations, which enables inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, and visitor dispersion to ease over-tourism. Empowering smaller enterprises in the GMS has enriched the MTCO s ability to facilitate and support new and larger tourism networks that stretch beyond traditional travelling hubs. In addition to this, the MTCO has put a big emphasis on encouraging and rewarding responsible tourism practice in an effort to stimulate sustainable industry development in the region. Initiatives are aligned to the 5 Strategic Pillars of the Mekong Tourism Sector Strategy, in particular pillars 1, 3, and 4: STRATEGIC PILLARS 1) Human Resources Development 2) Improve Tourism Infrastructure 3) Enhance Visitor Experiences and Services 4) Creative Marketing and Promotion 5) Facilitate Regional Travel 4

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6 Destination Mekong has been created in 2017 as a public - private partnership framework to promote the Mekong region, comprising of Cambodia, PR China (Provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan (PRC) as a single tourism destination to stimulate responsible and sustainable development and investment, and drive inclusive growth. Endorsed by the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office, and aligned with the mandate of the regional collaborative tourism framework of the six member governments of the Greater Mekong Subregion, Destination Mekong executes targeted projects and initiatives via a public-private partnership investment structure, led by UNWTO Affiliate Member Chameleon Strategies. The flagship initiative is Mekong Moments, an innovative collaborative social commerce platform, enabling any organisation related to the visitor economy in the GMS regardless of size and type to inspire domestic and international travelers with practical digital marketing tools. For more information, please visit: 6

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8 MekongMoments.com Regional Social Commerce Campaign Platform Mekong Moments is a globally unique consumer marketing campaign and travel inspiration platform that encourages travellers to share visual content and experiences in the GMS by way of specific hash-tagged social media posts. These posts are aggregated, curated, and then filtered on the Mekong Moments platform in addition to any corresponding websites. The ongoing result of this process is a searchable interactive map with currently over 10,000 experiences packaged with corresponding social media content and/or campaigns. 8

9 MekongMinis.com Integrated Campaign: Mekong Mini Movie Festival The Mekong Moments platform success helped to facilitate the 2018 Mekong Mini Movie Festival, a unique competition that celebrates the many faces and experiences of the GMS, promoting the region as a single tourist destination. Supported by all tourism ministries and the private sector in the GMS, the festival was targeted to attract amateur and professional movie makers and create a large amount of content for the region. The festival campaign has brought in over 500 video submissions which earned a collective viewership of over 7 million people globally. 9

10 MekongStories.com Mekong Stories Contributed Content Distribution Good stories drive an emotional connection and establish a powerful relationship. Authentic and real storytelling can achieve that powerful emotional connection with consumers and increase the intent to purchase tremendously. The Mekong Region has powerful stories to tell from residents that work in travel and tourism; from businesses that deliver engaging experiences; and from travelers themselves sharing their experiences. Mekong Stories is all about finding and telling these stories to inspire people to visit the Mekong Region. The vision for Mekong Stories is to develop a platform to distribute contributed stories by content creators about travel experiences in the Greater Mekong Subregion to relevant online and offline publications. 10

11 InspiringLaos.com Social Commerce Powered Destination With its operation modelled after Mekong Moments, Inspiring Laos can effectively promote new destinations and experiences as well as drive exposure and bookings to existing businesses, especially for smaller travel operators. All travel businesses are listed and searchable on the platform, and can upgrade to fully integrated private-label websites, making it one of the only tourism board websites including stakeholders from all types and sizes to collaboratively market the destination while promoting their respective experiences. 11

12 Mist.asia MTCO Supported Start-ups in innovating travel services in the GMS : MIST.asia In partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and supported by the Australian Government, the Mekong Innovative Start-ups in Tourism (MIST) program mentored select travel startups from within the region and outside the region to drive responsible tourism development in the Greater Mekong Subregion. 12

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14 ExperienceMekong.org Small Responsible Travel Operators Curating small travel businesses categorized in Stay, Taste, Do, Shop, and Cruise/Tour, the Experience Mekong Collection showcases responsible travel experiences across the six member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion. Every year, in partnership with Thailand-based Mahidol University, one business is featured for its innovation via a case study to allow other businesses to learn and get inspired. RECOGNIZING THE 2018 EXPERIENCE MEKONG COLLECTION SHOWCASES PHARE CAMBODIAN CIRCUS (CAMBODIA) LONGJI RICE TERRACES (PR CHINA) OCK POP TOK (LAO PDR) INLE HERITAGE (MYANMAR) LOCAL ALIKE (THAILAND) KOTO (VIET NAM) IN COLLABORATION WITH 14

15 MEKONG TOURISM FORUM MekongTourismForum.org Brings together the Industry at Mekong Tourism Forum The annual Mekong Tourism Forum, hosted in rotation by the tourism ministries of the GMS member countries, brings together the industry to debate issues and trends to develop responsible and sustainable tourism in the Greater Mekong Subregion. MTF has aimed to create an innovative and experiential approach to stage the annual conference by driving inclusive growth. In Luang Prabang, Lao PDR at MTF 2017, the event matched at 16 sessions at 16 venues making the destination the venue. In Nakhon Phanom at MTF 2018, the event integrated 8 thematic strategy workshops with 8 community-based villages. 15

16 PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE 3 RD MEKONG TOURISM FORUM AT ITB BERLIN. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 TH, PM TO 3.45 PM AT CUBE CLUB/CITY CUBE. THEME: FILM TOURISM & VISUAL STORYTELLING Mekong Tourism Forum at ITB Berlin. Since 2016, we have partnered with ITB to bring the Greater Mekong Subregion to the largest travel trade fair in the world, ITB Berlin. The mini Mekong Tourism Forum at ITB Berlin in Germany in March discusses key issues from human resources development, digital transformation, and visual storytelling to showcase tourism innovations and sustainable experiences to increase exposure for our industry and build partnerships with stakeholders. 16

17 FUTURE SNAPSHOT FOR EXAMPLE Muslim Travel Snapshot Snapshot of Child Protection Restaurant and Bar Snapshot Cruise Snapshot Heritage Tourism Snapshot MekongTrends.com Provides Regional Tourism Trends and Insights Under its public-private partnership framework Destination Mekong, Mekong Trends is publishing Snapshot reports on various topics. The first report published in 2017 was focused on GMS Aviation, the 2018 Mekong Trends Report will be on Responsible Travel in the GMS, and the planned report for 2019 is scheduled to be on China Outbound Tourism into the GMS. 17

18 MekongTourism.org Provides Digital Travel Trade Platform With support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the MTCO re-launched its travel trade website MekongTourism.org in 2015, which was recognized with various awards for its innovative approach. The site houses an e-library with documents available for free download, its Mekong Tourism Contributor Program categorized into experts, storytellers, and groups, the Experience Mekong Collection, the Events Calendar, destination information, tourism performance statistics, and a news feed with curated articles from various relevant sources. The site is complemented with an e-newsletter and active social media accounts. 18

19 The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office Receives Acclamation from Global Tourism Industry Leaders In working with the tourism ministries of the six-member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), the MTCO has made major strides towards empowering inclusive tourism growth, poverty alleviation, and visitor dispersion to ease over-tourism by developing capacity for local enterprises in the region. In launching key award-winning projects that are aligned with the GMS Tourism Sector Strategy , the MTCO has empowered human resource development, bolstered tourism infrastructure, enhanced visitor experiences and services, and developed an innovative and collaborative marketing network across all six GMS nations. From , the MTCO, in collaborating with the six national tourism organizations of the GMS member countries, has put a big emphasis on encouraging and rewarding responsible tourism practice in an effort to stimulate sustainable tourism development in the region in addition to providing scalable models for tourism ministries worldwide. EXPERIENCE MEKONG TOURISM MARKETING STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN GREATER MEKONG SUBREGION TOURISM SECTOR STRATEGY DOWNLOAD URL: bit.ly/gtss-2016 DOWNLOAD URL: bit.ly/mtms

20 Awards & Achievements The MekongMoments.com platform has been recently recognised with a PATA Gold Award, and with the prestigious Golden City Gate Award at ITB Berlin for its promotional video. Most recently, the MTCO was awarded the HSMAI Adrian Gold Award in 2018 for outstanding hospitality advertising through the Mekong Mini Movie Festival campaign. Previously, the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office was recognized for its institutional tourism industry website MekongTourism. org for its design and innovative approach with a PATA Gold Award, the HSMAI Adrian Gold Award, and Best Responsible Tourism Website at ITB Asia. The MTCO has been featured as a driving force for tourism growth in the Asia Pacific region by a number of industry publications, such as the UNWTO Global Report on Inclusive Tourism Destinations, the European Travel Commission report, as well as in a Google-supported report published by the Pacific Asia Tourism Association (PATA) and Oxford Economics PATA Gold Award for outstanding industry marketing practice MTCO Regional Social Commerce Campaign Platform: MekongMoments.com The award-winning Mekong Moments platform is a globally unique consumer marketing campaign and travel inspiration platform that encourages travellers to share visual content and experiences in the GMS by way of specific hash-tagged social media posts. These posts are aggregated, curated, and then filtered on the Mekong Moments platform in addition to any corresponding websites. The ongoing result of this process is a searchable interactive map with currently over 10,000 experiences packaged with corresponding social media content and/or campaigns HSMAI Adrian Gold Award for digital marketing excellence MTCO Integrated Digital Marketing Campaign: Mekong Mini Movie Festival MekongMinis.com The award-winning Mekong Moments platform is a globally unique consumer marketing campaign and travel inspiration platform that encourages travellers to share visual content and experiences in the GMS by way of specific hash-tagged social media posts. These posts are aggregated, curated, and then filtered on the Mekong Moments platform in addition to any corresponding websites. The ongoing result of this process is a searchable interactive map with currently over 10,000 experiences packaged with corresponding social media content and/or campaigns. 20

21 Internationally Recognised as a Driving Force for Inclusive and Responsible Tourism Growth The MTCO made the pages of several industry publications this year, including the following: Global Report on Inclusive Tourism Destinations: Model and success stories (UNWTO) The UNWTO report highlights the MTCO s 2017 Mekong Tourism Forum in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR as a model for inclusive tourism across other destinations. Instead of concentrating activity on one venue, the forum instead allowed local businesses and residents to participate and benefit from the four-day conference. The UNWTO marked this execution as a showcase model for practical public action toward strengthening inclusive tourism efforts globally. bit.ly/globalreport-mtco Data & Digital Platforms: Driving Tourism Growth in Asia Pacific (Supported by Google and published by the Pacific Asia Tourism Association and Oxford Economics company Tourism Economics) bit.ly/patareport18 In a report supported by Google and published by the Pacific Asia Tourism Association and Oxford Economics company Tourism Economics, the MTCO s Mekong Moments platform was recognised as a driving force in tourism growth for its ability to build digital capacity in lesser developed parts of the region, which in turn, enables inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, and visitor dispersion to lessen overtourism. Tracking Multi-Destination Travel (European Travel Commission) In the recent decades, multi-destination travel in Europe has become increasingly popular among a wide share of overseas visitors. Today s travellers are looking to maximise the benefits of their experiences by combining share visits to two or more destinations, which would be hard to achieve in a single destination trip. Mekong Moments was featured as a global best practice within regional tourism offices in driving transnational cross-border collaboration and public private partnerships. bit.ly/etcreport18 21

22 DOWNLOAD Mekong Tourism Overview 2018 at bit.ly/mekongtourismoverview 22 22

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