Mekong Tourism partners with Tourism Authority of Thailand

Together with TAT, Mekong Tourism has launched a new promotional campaign on Mekong Moments to shine light on regional tourism and thematic attractions in Thailand and the region to inspire tourism in the GMS.

Through collaborative efforts from the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), nine new travel corridors have been added to social commerce web platform Mekong Moments in an effort to help promote some of Thailand’s hidden treasures within the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

Developed by UNWTO Affiliate Member Chameleon Strategies, Mekong Moments is executed by the public-private partnership framework Destination Mekong and powered by the cutting-edge social commerce management system ENWOKE. By leveraging the phenomenon of social media sharing, the MTCO has effectively launched this visual consumer marketing campaign to promote each travel corridor (along with the over 100 experiences found within) on the TAT’s behalf. The routes are identified as follows:

• Southern Coastal Corridor
• Mekong Discovery Trail
• East-West Corridor
• Route 8
• Mekong Tea Caravan Trail
• Northern Heritage Trail
• Mekong River Cruising in the Golden Triangle
• The Middle Path of Lord Buddha
• The Royal Projects

Now live on www.mekongmoments.com, each of the corridors have a dedicated website, which provides visitors an in-depth impression of the overall journey as well as its linked experiences – many of which in Thailand. To help contribute to a larger tourism initiative that spans across all countries in the GMS, the TAT has worked with the MTCO to include several corridor experiences in each neighbouring country in the region (Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China). The far-reaching route titled the ‘Mekong Tea Caravan Trail’, for example, features thematic experiences in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and China.

“Partnering with the [MTCO] and Destination Mekong to allow domestic and international travellers to share their experiences when travelling on multi-country thematic routes originating in Thailand, as well as visiting Thai Royal Projects not only is aligned with TAT’s efforts to promote secondary destinations, but Mekong Moments also allows for small businesses in these regions to build capacity and drive business,” said Mr. Kitsana Kaewtumrong, TAT’s Executive Director of the Advertising and Public Relations Department.

Upon visiting a corridor page, guests are welcomed by a lattice of aggregated social media posts featuring places and experiences relevant to the corridor. Each piece of media content (qualified by suitable hashtags) links to the connected experience pages on Mekong Moments, provides information about the experience as well as a link to booking channels.

Social media posts can also be filtered by eight different ‘Traveller Types’ – ACTIVE, CULTURAL, WELLNESS, FOODIE, NATURE, BUDGET, LUXURY, and FAMILY. By clicking one of these filters, visitors can find experiences that are best suited for their style of travel. Furthermore, the Mekong Moments platform also allows visitors to search more specifically by an interactive map marked with clickable pinpoints.

As a result of launching this campaign, nearly 130 more individual experiences in total have been added to Mekong Moments’ rich 10,000-experience platform thus far. Experiences like the ‘King Taskin Shrine’ (Southern Coastal Corridor), ‘Angkhang Nature Resort’ (The Royal Projects), and Sukhothai Historical Park (The Middle Path of Lord Buddha) are viewable, providing more details about the experience in addition to any related aggerated social media content. Every experience is labelled by one of five filterable experience categories – DO, MOVE, STAY, SHOP, and TASTE.

“We are pleased to cooperate with the Tourism Authority of Thailand [TAT] in showcasing thematic multi-country routes in the Mekong Region, originating in Thailand,” said MTCO executive director Jens Thraenhart.

“With TAT’s foresight in visitor dispersion to react to over tourism by featuring secondary destinations, we are happy to support the strategy with our Mekong Moments travel inspiration platform to drive business to small sustainable travel operators powered by an innovative social commerce technology ENWOKE.”

source: eTN