BANGKOK, 8 September 2021: The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office and its marketing partner, Destination Mekong, will host two events this October; a virtual 2021 Mekong Innovations in Sustainable Tourism Forum and the Destination Mekong Summit.
To mark World Tourism Day celebrated globally on 27 September, the MTCO will host a virtual 2021 Mekong Innovations in Sustainable Tourism Forum from 6 to 7 October, according to the latest MTCCO update by executive director Jens Thraenhart.
World Tourism Day forum
The 6 to 7 October virtual forum will have a theme of “Innovation leading to Inclusive Growth” designed to cast the spotlight on Destination Mekong’s core projects and initiatives: Experience Mekong Showcases (EMS); Mekong Innovations in Sustainable Tourism (MIST); Mekong Heroes; Mekong Faces and Mekong Youth.
Destination Mekong Summit 2021
Thraenhart also confirms the virtual 2nd Destination Mekong Summit 2021 will be hosted 1400 to 1700 ICT, 20 to 21 October.
The event should command considerable interest as the countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region will name the new executive director of the MTCO who will replace Thraenhart, who resigned earlier this year after having been associated with MTCO’s development and marketing for over 10 years. He spent seven and a half years as its executive director. The new executive director will be officially welcomed during the summit and is expected to make their inaugural presentation at one of the sessions.
The event will adopt an all-virtual format for the second year in a row guaranteeing a global audience of Mekong Region specialists and tourism executives keen to see the six-country region prosper in tourism. The top billing of the proposed summit programme will go to one of the top global futurists. They will look at various scenarios for tourism recovery in the context of the Mekong Region member countries — Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.
Thematic sessions will be organised by Destination Mekong Expert Groups, and country sessions will feature innovative Experience Mekong Collection members from their respective countries.
A regional panel of tourism experts will discuss the future of tourism in the Mekong Region and introduce the new Mekong Tourism Recovery Communications Plan.
The 2021 MIST Forum agenda will unfold virtually as part of the two-day summit giving delegates an opportunity to witness the content pitches of the 2021 finalists of the Experience Mekong (EM) and MIST programmes.
The winners of the Experience Mekong Showcases and MIST programmes will be announced during the 2nd Destination Mekong Summit along with a citation for the winner of the 2021 Mekong Hero award, who will join the Mekong Heroes Hall of Fame.
Registration for both events will be available soon at: https://www.destinationmekong.com/event-directory/
