The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart 18, held in Langkawi, Malaysia on September 14, saw the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) receive reward for its exemplary work in tourism industry marketing for the Pacific Asia region.
Winning its second PATA Gold award, the MTCO was recognised for Mekong Moments, a consumer social marketing and travel inspiration platform. The web platform – powered by ENWOKE, a social commerce management solution operated by Chameleon Strategies (Thailand) – collaboratively promotes the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) as a single tourism destination in addition to driving direct business to individual business outlets through social commerce.
“Mekong Moments is a testament that true collaborative marketing is possible, and powerful to inspire people via shared experience to visit destinations,” said Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director of the MTCO.
Working with the public-private partnership framework Destination Mekong, the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) has driven the esteemed initiative since Mekong Moments became public in 2017. Its booming user participation and successful supporting campaigns (i.e. the Mekong Mini Movie Festival – www.mekongminis.com) has resulted in the MTCO receiving its award for industry marketing excellence, a great honour for all people and organisations involved said Thraenhart.
“We thank our member countries and the private sector for embracing this new and innovative concept and approach,” he added. “Mekong Moments is an effective catalyst to drive visitor dispersion and as such drive sustainable tourism development by improving destination management and avoiding over-tourism.”
The MTCO was on the winning shortlist gleaned from over 200 entries from 87 separate organisations and individuals worldwide. All winners were carefully selected by an independent judging committee consisting of 14 senior executives from the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors.
“[The Mekong Moments platform] exemplifies the true values of our Association in working towards a more responsible travel and tourism industry in the Asia Pacific region, said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy.
Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said, “This year’s PATA Gold Awards winners present us with yet another wide array of remarkable accomplishments in the different branches of the tourism industry.”
For the MTCO, the award is yet another accolade earned for the work done on the Mekong Moments platform. The coordinating office also won the prestigious “Golden Citygate Award” for its Mekong Moments’ campaign video at the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) Berlin in 2017.
Additionally, Mekong Moments has been showcased by both the UNWTO and the European Travel Commission as an exemplary solution for destinations to engage and build capacity for local businesses as well as inspire travellers around the world. Just this week, PATA and Tourism Economics – an Oxford economics company, with the support of Google – published a new research report titled ‘Data & Digital Platforms: Driving Tourism Growth in Asia Pacific’, featuring Mekong Moments as a best-practice case study, among companies such as Airbnb, Grab, and Klook. A full report can be downloaded at www.pata.org/store/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Data-Digital-Platforms-Driving-Tourism-Growth-in-Asia-Pacific.pdf.
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