BANGKOK, 2 March 2020: The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office confirmed on Saturday it was moving the annual Mekong Tourism Forum dates to 25 to 26 August 2020.
Myanmar will host the forum this year in Bagan essentially to promote its status as a UNESCO World Heritage site a designation that was awarded in July 2019.
The MTCO executive director, Jens Thraenhart, confirmed the MTF revised dates while attending a climate change tourism conference in Malta last week.
He was due to lead a Mekong Tourism event, 4 March, at the ITB Berlin this week However ITB Berlin announced it was complying with federal government instructions and cancelled what is arguably the world’s largest travel show.
“We will not be able to organise the 4th MTF Session @ITB Berlin on 4 March in Berlin, under the theme of Visual Storytelling,” he said in an email update to stakeholders.
The 2020 Mekong Tourism Forum will focus on the theme of “Achieving Balanced Tourism” in Bagan, Myanmar, hosted by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar.
Usually, the MTF is held in May, but the ministry moved it forward to April to miss the onset of the rainy season.
Now it looks like the Covid-19 outbreak, not the weather, will have the last say on meeting dates for events this year. If there are no signs of the virus burning itself over the next three months more high profile events will need to be rescheduled or cancelled.
MTCO also released its Mekong Tourism Booklet, to showcase various programmes and initiatives. Download: http://bit.ly/MekongTourism2020.
