Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). It presents an inclusive, interactive, and results-oriented
opportunity to encourage public and private sector participation in representing the GMS as a
single destination.
The Mekong Tourism Forum works to achieve three main objectives:
1. To raise the profile of the Greater Mekong Subregion as a single tourist destination
2. To provide an industry-wide platform for the public and private sectors to address sub-
regional tourism issues
3. To expand marketing networks and opportunities for promoting the Greater Mekong
Subregion and pool collective resources to create intra-industry synergies
Mekong Trends
Mekong Trends is a knowledge platform offering insights and trends related to travel and
tourism professionals in the GMS. A public-private partnership that delivers valuable industry
intelligence on specific and relevant topics, this Destination Mekong initiative is published for
the industry on behalf of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) and National
Tourism Organizations of the six government of the Greater Mekong Subregion (Cambodia, PR
China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam).
Mekong Trends aims to provide Snapshots about specific travel and tourism issues, such as
Aviation, Hotel Development, Community-based tourism, Food Tourism, Accessible Tourism,
Heritage Tourism, Adventure tourism, and Human Capital Development, and others. Each trend
report is accompanied by a seminar on the same topic.
Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST)
Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) program is jointly managed by the Mekong
Tourism Coordinating Office and Mekong Business Initiative (MBI. Organized by Destination
Mekong, it is supported by the Australian Government and Asian Development Bank. Other
partners join the program; for example, in 2019, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), as
well as the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), are also partnering to support the program.
The mission of MIST is to support and integrate travel startups from the six member countries
of the Greater Mekong Subregion into the travel and tourism ecosystem to ensure innovation
in the globally competitive tourism industry.
Experience Mekong Collection
The “Experience Mekong Collection” showcases responsible and sustainable travel experiences
in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The Mekong Tourism Advisory Group (MeTAG) is
made up of tourism professionals active in responsible tourism, and the GMS endorses all
nominations.
In partnership with Thailand-based Mahidol University, the program features one innovative
business per country every year in the Experience Mekong Showcase and raise awareness of
best practices to build capacity.
The programme is managed under the Destination Mekong framework.