THE TOURISM industry of ASEAN is ramping up on technology, with the ASEAN eTravel Mart debuting yesterday, along with the announcement of an “electronic standards” for the region and the official signing of an agreement between the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) and meta-search engine Wego (see story Wego gets cracking on Southeastasia.org).
The mart – a full-day conference with a small table-top exhibition in its inaugural format – drew about 600 participants and was opened by Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Bangkok-based Travel Technology Association (TTA), which initiated the mart, hopes to grow the event and expand TTA’s role regionally, even casting its eyes globally in the future.
President Apichai Sakulsureeyadej said that while ASEAN destinations offered real value, the challenge was improving the region’s marketing capabilities to reach changing consumers and channels. The TTA saw this gap, he said, and had provided training to 6,000 SMEs in the Thai travel industry since its inception in 2004. It hoped to do the same across ASEAN, which Apichai said was “working to catch up and be ahead” of technology usage.
TTA has also devised electronic standards for the region. Apichai explained these were “technical specs” such as the use of one common term (eg, “hotel” and not “property”) for easier and cheaper connectivity between systems in the travel industry in the region. “It is now up to ASEANTA to carry this forward,” he said.
