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.”
Read more in the ATF Daily
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