THE Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is promoting secondary destinations and multi-country itineraries along key themes as part of its new marketing strategy and action plan.
Unveiled at a workshop held by the Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Asian Development Bank last week, the plan focuses special-interest itineraries themed on ecotourism, local cuisine and cultural appreciation that will take travellers beyond main cities into lesser-visited destinations.
The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office executive director, Jens Thraenhart, commented: “We encourage tourists to spread their spending beyond established locations such as Angkor Wat, the Grand Palace in Bangkok and Yangon in Myanmar.”
The plan, which will span 2015-2020, drew the participation of tourism leaders from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Besides the renewed marketing focus, the plan also offers collaborative marketing tools such as the MekongTourism.org digital platform. A free online knowledge centre and tourism e-library on the GMS will be hosted on the site.
Speaking at the workshop in Bangkok, Thraenhart said that the subregion has been growing at 17 per cent a year, faster than ASEAN’s 11 per cent.
Thraenhart was confident that the plan could help raise the profile of the GMS on the world tourism stage as accessibility, product and visa policies improve.
He added: “The plan has the additional goals of marketing tourism products and services that help fight poverty and empower women.”
