Mekong and TravelMole join forces

The Mekong Tourism Office and TravelMole have announced an innovative global two-year partnership aimed at promoting travel to and within the Greater Mekong Subregion, which comprises Cambodia, China (Guangxi and Yunnan provinces), Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

[Pictured left: Ken Scott of ScottAsia, Stephen Yong, Executive Director of the Mekong Tourism Office and Charles Kao, Global Publisher of TravelMole]

TravelMole is the global leader in travel and tourism with 500,000 travel industry subscribers worldwide in 132 countries and the initiative, called “Mekong With Love”, which creates new opportunities for travel industry operators to promote their products and services and exchange news, views and education about a region that is culturally and scenically rich, yet still has 60 million people living on less than a dollar a day.

Alfredo Perdiguero, project economist with responsibility for Mekong region tourism in the Asian Development Bank said: “The Mekong Tourism Office and TravelMole are taking practical steps to uphold the Greater Mekong countries’ vision of sustainable tourism supporting poverty alleviation and the Asian Development Bank strongly supports this vision.”

He added: “The Greater Mekong Subregion is still relatively unknown in the world travel market but it deserves a bigger audience, with Mekong Tourism Office and TravelMole initiative a big step in the right direction.”

With the Mekong Tourism Office/TravelMole partnership in place, tourism operators outside the Mekong subregion sending visitors, and operators inside the region receiving visitors, can now access five major ways to take advantage of the arrangement, with the following five services being offered free to Mekong tourism operators:-

1. Three banner insertions in “WEEKEND: Mekong With Love” ePublication to 500,000 travel industry professionals in 132 countries;
2. The running of feature articles, with bylines, in “WEEKEND: Mekong With Love” (the articles can be submitted by Mekong destinations, operators or journalists);
3. Press release distribution to more than 9,000 travel media journalists and editors;
4. Webinars (online seminars) about a destination and/or service/product sector; and
5. The creation of a dedicated Mekong zone on http://www.travelmole.com/ for the hosting of eBrochures from tourist offices or outbound tour operators serving the Mekong region.

Interested parties should apply to [email protected] and TravelMole/Mekong Tourism Office will then review requests for approval for each banner, feature or release, as there is limited space available and technical details will be e-mailed to approved applicants.

Charles Kao, TravelMole’s global publisher, said: “Successful applicants will be those who send submissions that are not just self-serving, but are articles, releases, presentations and banners that are somewhere between journalism and advertorial, that elaborate about the segment or destination under discussion and not just about a company’s individual product.”

He added, “TravelMole, which is allocating staff resources to set up the Mekong zone online, will allow up to three insertions from each interested Mekong destination or operator and after that we should have momentum going and should be able to offer extended promotional campaign options at special rates.

“The overall objective is to raise awareness about the Mekong as a destination, especially among opinion leaders such as travel agents and media.”

Stephen Yong, executive director of the Bangkok-based Mekong Tourism Office, said: “We’re happy to promote tourism businesses that have a product or service that is compatible with the six Mekong governments’ sustainable vision for the region.”

The Mekong Tourism Office’s e-newsletter content provider, Bangkok-based ScottAsia Communications run by Ken Scott, would work with TravelMole to assess and deliver the best exposure for hotels, tour operators, airlines, heritage sites, museums and educational centres in the Mekong region.

Kao said: “Mekong With Love is a platform comprising free and – eventually – pay-for elements. For the first time TravelMole can draw strategic attention to one of the world’s great destinations. We look forward to offering the same development platform in other subregions, including the Indian subcontinent.”