Date: 21 January 2013
ASEAN takes second online stab with new travel site.
THE highest powers in ASEAN's tourism bodies will debut a
new website today to promote intra-ASEAN travel and tour packages, which some
say overlaps with a website launched by the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA)
in 2010. The brainchild of the region’s
tourism ministers, Aseantourism.travel features a commercial component that
contains 130 South-east Asian tourism products that have been endorsed by
regional leaders.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism secretary-general, Ong Hong
Peng, who was also the NTO head for Malaysia and chairman of the Product
Development Working Group at the 37th Meeting of ASEAN NTOs on January 18, said
the next step of the project would see the creation of tour packages combining
two or more ASEAN countries and promotion on the new site. The website also
provides information related to the region’s tourism industry such as policies,
facts and figures, and marketing initiatives.
Sansern Ngaorungsi, deputy governor Asia and South Pacific
Market at Tourism Authority of Thailand and chairman of the Marketing Working
Group, said Aseantourism.travel, developed at a cost of US$20,000, allows
member countries to log in and update content.
However, some travel trade players regard the new website as
a duplicate of ASEANTA’s online portal, SoutheastAsia.org, first promoted at
ITB Berlin in 2010. A source close to the SoutheastAsia.org project said the
new website would “confuse the public who will not know which is the latest”.
The source added: “There are more than 2,000 tour packages on SoutheastAsia.org,
while the new website has only 130 (products). (The former) must be promoted
further. ASEANTA may lack funds for promotion, so ASEAN NTOs should come in and
allocate a budget for support.”
ASEANTA board member, Oudet Souvannavong, admitted that SoutheastAsia.org
was not up-to-date as there was a “lack of (manpower) capacity”. He said
ASEANTA might consider heeding suggestions from some members to privatise the
website. That said, Oudet does not see the new site as competition. He said:
“From a business standpoint, the more portals, the better.”
By S Puvaneswary, reporting from ASEAN Tourism Forum 2013,
Vientiane
Copyright @ TTG Asia Media Pte Ltd © 2013
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