Feeling the warmth in SE Asia
KUALA LUMPUR – The ASEAN Travel Association (ASEANTA), in partnership with the ASEAN National Tourism Organisations, is set to launch a new destination marketing campaign for the ASEAN region branded “Southeast Asia: Feel the Warmth.â€
While Southeast Asia will be the destination brand, ASEAN will be co-branded as a sponsor organisation for the campaign.
In January this year at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Hanoi, ASEANTA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with United States Agency for International Development/Regional Development Mission Asia’s (USAID/RDMA) ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project.
The objective of the MOU is to promote Southeast Asia as a premier travel destination to rival other regions, such as Europe, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific.
The destination marketing strategy developed by ACE, in partnership with ASEANTA, has been unanimously endorsed by the ASEANTA Board.
ASEANTA president Felix Cruz said, “This strategy will be a great success if we are able to increase public awareness of ASEAN through the website, encourage travellers to visit the region and better, if they visit not just one destination but to include another in their plans.â€
The strategy seeks to maximise the effectiveness of a finite marketing budget by leveraging global familiarity with the regional destination brand “Southeast Asia†to promote the region as a premier travel destination.
This in turn is expected to lead to wider exposure for ASEAN and its goals to people who may not otherwise have heard of it.
Southeast-Asia.com, the online hub for the campaign, will be clearly branded an official website of ASEAN and ASEANTA and offer hyperlinks to both organizations.
The website will encourage people to visit the region and help them plan and book travel itineraries – comprising flights, hotels, tours, etc – that take in more than one ASEAN-member nation.
Currently under development, the website is being set up to benefit any large or small supplier of ASEAN travel and tourism products that has a searchable web presence.
For private-sector stakeholders that have yet to market themselves online, ACE and ASEANTA will provide opportunities, information, and tools to help them take that step.
The regional marketing strategy, web development, campaign, and technical assistance is all part of the ACE Project’s mandate to help boost ASEAN’s regional tourism competitiveness.
Ian Jarrett
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