John Morse to Keynote 8th Mekong Tourism Forum

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has announced that Chairman of Tourism Victoria and former Australian Tourist Commission Managing Director, Mr. John Morse, will deliver the keynote address at the 8th Mekong Tourism Forum, March 28-30, 2003 at the Hanoi Daewoo Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam. His speech will be entitled “Facing the Marketing Shift”.

Mr. Morse will elaborate on the need for tourism operations in the Greater Mekong Sub-region to adapt themselves to changes in various aspects of the world marketplace such as demographics and travellers’ tastes and spending patterns.

The Winning Edge Managing Director, Mr. Bert van Walbeek and PATA Vice President, Mr. Peter Semone, will give guidelines for handling crises in the travel industry.

During the Mekong Tourism Forum, national tourism offices, government officials, airline leaders, hoteliers, tour operators, travel agents and media from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam and Yunnan, China (PRC) will meet to discuss key travel issues under the theme, “Selling the Mekong in a Dynamic Marketplace”.

Asian Overland Managing Director, Mr. Anthony Wong, will discuss Mekong tourism diversification and the needs of emerging source markets.

Other key issues of the forum will be “A Milestone of Mekong Activities", an update on tourism cooperation within the Mekong region by The Agency for Coordinating Mekong Tourism Activities, Director, Mr. Mana Chobthum.

PATA Managing Director, Strategic Intelligence Centre, Mr. John Koldowski will deliver a presentation entitled, “Mekong Market Intelligence: Acting on the Numbers”. The session will show how to translate statistics into useful marketing data and knowledge.

Travel agents should also be interested in “BSP in the Mekong”, a discussion on how the Bank Settlement Plan works for tourism in the Mekong region. The "Role of Local Tourism Associations" will draw from the experience of local tourism associations in other Southeast Asian destinations.

“The Mekong region has successfully raised its profile in the world tourism market and is now one of the fastest-growing destinations in the world,” said Mr. Semone. “Now the region has to prepare itself to handle all the new challenges which tourism brings.”

Statistics from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre show that the number of arrivals to Cambodia increased 10.3 percent January-September 2002, compared to same period 2001. Lao (PDR) increased 34.6 percent (January-March), Vietnam 12 percent (January-November) and Thailand 7.2 percent (January-October). Only Myanmar was stagnant with a 0.6 percent increase (January-September).

The 8th Mekong Tourism Forum is organised by PATA in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The Forum is being hosted by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Registration for PATA members is US$120 per delegate, US$200 for non-members and US$50 for spouses for social functions only. Earlybirds will receive a US$20 discount for registering before February 28, 2003. A late fee of US$20 will be levied for registrations received after March 1, 2003.