Mekong tourism plans unfurl

BANGKOK  The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office has released details of its latest marketing strategy and action plan that covers the period 2015 to 2020.
The six Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries – Cambodia, Laos, China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam signed off on the plan at the 20th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Ministerial Conference in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, 10 September.
Called “Experience Mekong Tourism Marketing Strategy and Action Plan 2015 to 2020” it has taken almost a month for the group’s press release to go 

public.
Promoting secondary destinations and encouraging multi-country itineraries, especially those with themes of community-based tourism and river-based tourism, were identified as priorities in the plan. Food and heritage were also listed as priorities as the six countries attempt to create common goals and travel experiences.
inside no 8“We encourage tourists to spread their spending beyond established locations such as Angkor Wat, the Grand Palace in Bangkok, and Yangon in Myanmar,” said Jens Thraenhart, executive director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office.
But to accomplish that the six countries need much better flight connections. It can often take all day to commute from one destination in the region to another.
However, Thraenhart said he was optimistic that the marketing plan would help to further raise the profile of the GMS where tourists can enjoy excellent air, land, and water connectivity, diverse tourism activities, quality tourism services, and convenient tourist visa policies.
The plan attempts to recognise the competitive global tourism landscape, changing consumer behaviour, the importance of the internet and mobile use, improved infrastructure and access to the GMS. As such, the focus is around travel experiences and connecting with the local culture of the region.
The new plan includes collaborative marketing tools such as the MekongTourism.org digital platform, which hosts a freely accessible GMS tourism e-library.
Experience Mekong is the marketing manual for the Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Working Group, paid for by the Asian Development Bank, but will the six countries take practical steps to make the action plan a reality for the region’s travel industry?
The challenge starts here for the office and the six countries. Led and funded by the Asian Development Bank the six country tourism offices are tuned to creating plans such as this one, but not to actually delivering results that can be adopted by travel companies. There are bookcases jammed packed with reports, master plans and earlier versions of the Experience Mekong that were never implemented.
Travel companies have their own survey teams that build programmes without reference to the many plans and reports released by Mekong’s tourism strategists. The reports go largely unread, dismissed as irrelevant to the process of creating tour content that can sell.
It should also be noted that the latest plan covers 2015 to 2020 and it was approved for launch 10 September 2015, Nine months of the action plan lifespan has already been lost due to deliberations and endless meetings paid for by ADB.
That will be conveniently forgotten when the next round of funding is given to create the next five- year plan.
The Experience Mekong Tourism Marketing Strategy 2015 to 2020 can be downloaded in the Mekong Tourism e-Library at http://www.mekongtourism.org/index.php/about/marketing-strategy/.
About Mekong Tourism:
Established in early 2006, the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) is a collaborative effort between the six countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS): Cambodia, The People’s Republic of China (PRC) (Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces), The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The mission of the MTCO is to help GMS National Tourism Organisations develop and promote the Mekong as a single travel destination.

sourced:ttrweekly.com