Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
95
jointly promote the multi-country experience318. Constraints include coordination difficulties,
inconsistent Mekong brand messaging, insufficient funding, and an uneven capacity to conduct
joint marketing and promotion campaigns - especially using online tools and social media. Less
effective marketing undermines the GMS objectives to attract higher-spending visitors,
promote new destinations, and counter seasonality. In order to change this situation, the MTCO
and the GMS TWC, with the financial support of the ADB, have started to address these issues
in 2015 by relaunching successfully its travel trade website , which was
recognized with various awards for its innovative approach. The site houses an e-library with
documents available for free download, its Mekong Tourism Contributor Program categorized
into experts, storytellers, and groups, the Experience Mekong Collection, event calendar,
destination information, tourism performance statistics, and a news feed with curated articles
from various relevant sources. The site is completed with a newsletter and active social media
accounts( www.mekongtourism.org) 320 .The flagships are contributor programs such as
Mekong Moments321 and Mekong Trends om), the Mekong Mini Movie
Festival (Mekong Minis) and the Experience Mekong Collection: The flagship MekongMoments,
an innovative social commerce platform enables any organization related to the visitor
economy in the GMS regardless of size and type to inspire domestic and international travelers
with practical digital marketing tools(www.mekongmoments.org).323 It encourages travelers
to share visual content and experiences in GMS by way of specific hash-tagged social media
posts. These posts are collected, curated, and then filtered on the Mekong Moments platform
along with any corresponding websites. The ongoing result of this process is a searchable
interactive map with currently over 10,000 experiences packaged with corresponding social
media content and/or campaigns. 324 The Mekong Moments platform success helped to
facilitate the 2018 ‘Mekong Mini Movie Festival,’ a unique competition that celebrates the many
faces and experiences of the GMS, promoting the region as a single tourism destination. The
2018 Mekong Minis campaign has attracted over 500 video submissions, which earned a
collective viewership of over one million and reached over 22 million people globally. 325 The
Mekong Mini Movie Festival was recognized with the HSMAI Adrian Gold Award as best digital
tourism campaign in 2018.
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 endorse all
nominations. As a capacity-building initiative in the GMS, these best practices are to motivate
other operators to learn and get inspired (www. ). Curating small travel
businesses categorized in Stay, Taste, Do, Shop, and Cruise/tour, the Experience Mekong
Collection showcases responsible travel experiences across the six member countries of the
GMS in partnership with Mahidol University. One business per country is featured as a Mekong
Collection Showcase every year for its innovation via a case study to allow other businesses to
learn and get inspired326.
318 Interview with GM of Myanmar based tour operator.
319 Ibid.
320 Ibid.
321Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office, Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Sector Strategy 2016-2025.
322 Ibid.
323 Ibid.
324 Ibid.
325 Ibid.
326 Ibid.