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Brought to you by ASIA REGION 41 Thailand to be seen in New Shades Sunset in Bagan, Myanmar Myanmar Tourism Marketing Focusing on Cultural Variety Myanmar is known as a destination that offers many awe-inspiring archaeological heritage sites around the country, none more spectacular than Bagan. Once the heart of an important kingdom, Bagan today consists of around 2000 Buddhist temples and monuments spread out across a beautiful green plain, Southwest of Mandalay. Myanmar recently submitted an application for the huge, remarkable complex to become the next Unesco World Heritage site. May Myat Mon Win, Chairperson of Myanmar Tourism Marketing, said that Bagan is an area that can easily be compared with tourist sites like Angkor Wat or the temples of Egypt, many of the temples over 1000 years old. At ITB Berlin, Myanmar Tourism Marketing is also focusing on the cultural diversity the country has to offer. May said: “Myanmar has over 130 different tribes; each of them having their own culture, food, festivals, costumes etc. The country also offers a lot of cultural festivals for tourists like the fun New Year water festival in April which is one big street festival with water and music; ideal for families and young people.” Other festivals include boat racing, launching huge traditional hot air balloons or the dancing elephant festival (no real elephants are used). May added: “Myanmar offers a huge cultural variety the whole year round and especially the green season from May to September is an excellent period to visit.” Myanmar welcomed 3.4 million visitors in 2017, according to the country’s tourism ministry, up from 2.9 million in 2016 – an 18% rise Hall 26b / Stand 226 Thailand tourism has gone from strength to strength over the last decade. The Kingdom is today Southeast Asia’s busiest tourist destination, crossing the 35-million visitor arrivals’ mark in 2017. The Kingdom’s tourism earnings from international tourists reached US billion last year. Over the last decade, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has been increasingly looking at diversifying its tourism offer. Luxury travel, female traveller products, medical and well-being tourism, sports, gastronomy, Thailand has been looking increasingly at targeting niche markets. Over the last two years, TAT also moved into promoting secondary destinations. “We want to spread the benefits of tourism to all of our communities”, explains TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn. At the end of last year, TAT launched its new marketing campaign “Open to the New Shades” which is further capitalising on providing an authentic tailor-made experience to any traveller coming into the Kingdom. “The Open to the New Shades concept is about asking visitors to “open” their minds and hearts to deepen and widen their experiences into a new perception of attractions and variety of experiences in Thailand. This means brand new products to visitors but also more creativity in promotion”, adds Mr. Supasorn. In Southeast Asia, Thailand has successfully redefined marketing boundaries in tourism. And opening itself up to ‘New Shades’, it just became the official Presenting partner of the LGBT Pavilion at ITB Berlin, a first for the Kingdom! Hall 26b / Stand 221 Bangkok ITB BERLIN NEWS • Thursday 8 th March 2018
