The 44th Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Tourism Working Group (TWG) Meeting, the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) Board Meeting and other relevant meetings were held in Siem Reap, Cambodia from 28 to 29 November 2019. H.E. Mr. Tith Chantha, Secretary of State of Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia, Mr. Steven Schipani, Head of Project Administration Unit of Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Mr. Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director of Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) delivered welcome remarks at the opening session of the GMS TWG Meeting. With around 80 representatives from the National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) of the GMS countries, ADB, MTCO, ASEAN-Japan Centre and ASEAN-Korea Centre attended the meetings. On behalf of ACC, Ms. Kong Roatlomang, Director of Education, Culture and Tourism Division (ECTD) attended the meetings and delivered a presentation on ACC's initiatives for the GMS tourism.
Secretary of State Tith Chantha extended a warm welcome to all the participants. He said that the GMS has become one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations in Southeast Asia with warm hospitality, diverse products and an increasing number of international tourist arrivals. Although a lot has been achieved, many issues and challenges remain to be addressed and solved together by the GMS partners. He hoped that all the relevant stakeholders would exert join efforts for a sustained development of the GMS tourism sector.
The representative of the Culture and Tourism Ministry of China made a brief introduction on the outcomes of the 43rd GMS Tourism Working Group Meeting held in Dali, China in May 2019. Then, the representatives of the six GMS countries, namely Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Viet Nam shared with each other the latest tourist figures, joint GMS regional tourism promotion activities and other GMS tourism sector strategy priority areas. The representative of MTCO presented the new video of Experience Mekong Tourism Destination and its upcoming initiatives for the GMS tourism.
The experts of MTCO, ADB and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) shared with all the representatives their understandings on the GMS tourism statistics and relevant initiatives.
Director Kong Roatlomang explained ACC's recent initiatives to support the GMS tourism sector. For the year of 2019, the two flagship tourism projects, namely, Chinese Tour Guide Training and Capacity Building on China-Ready, were both carried out in the GMS countries of Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. Via the project of Promoting the Quality of ASEAN-China Tourism Destination and participating in the major travel fairs in China for the whole year, ACC further helped tap the Chinese tourism market for the GMS travel destinations. The representatives of ACC also broadly exchanged views with their counterparts on the GMS tourism collaboration.
The Greater Mekong Sub-region comprises of Cambodia, China (specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. The GMS countries are now making joint efforts to promote the sub-region as a single destination for international visitors and encourage the communities to enhance the environmental, social, and economic benefits of tourism.
