The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) today announced Air Asia, Mastercard, TTG Travel Trade Publishing (TTG), ASEANTA, GOASEAN and the ASEAN Centres in China, Japan and Korea as strategic partners for the VISIT ASEAN@50 Golden Celebration 2017 campaign.
The objective of VISIT ASEAN@50 is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, raise awareness of Southeast Asia as a single yet diverse destination, and increase tourist arrivals to the region from 109 million in 2015 to 121 million by end of 2017.
The partners will boost the VISIT ASEAN@50 campaign by implementing a range of promotions, raising awareness through ASEAN and Southeast Asia brand building, and driving travel bookings, especially for trips to more than one Southeast Asia destination.
Air AsiaAir Asia will implement an extensive multi-media awareness campaign bearing the Visit ASEAN@50 logo across all their operating markets to promote its ASEAN Pass to encourage travellers to use its network of 140 routes within Southeast Asia. Air Asia will also run monthly tactical campaigns.
Mastercard
Mastercard will embark on its largest travel campaign to date for the ASEAN region and will work with tourism partners and the global Priceless Cities program to strike a universal chord with consumers across different countries, languages and cultures. Cardholders can look forward to exclusive experiences and specially curated merchant offers across a variety of passions and travel experiences.
TTG Travel Trade Publishing
TTG Asia recently launched the ASEAN 50th Anniversary MICE Special Edition issue in September, and will be releasing more exclusive content in 2017 to inspire and promote travel and tourism business to the region.
ASEAN Centres
The three ASEAN Centres in China (ACC), Japan (AJC) and Korea (AKC) will be supporting VISIT ASEAN@50 with initiatives such as photo and social media contests and campaigns, TV programmes, travel shows and expos, media familiarisation trips, and an ASEAN Travel mobile application promoting Southeast Asian food and arts as a reason to travel.
“Southeast Asia is arguably the world’s top tourism destination,” said Chairperson of the VISIT ASEAN@50 campaign, Mr Wardi bin Haji Mohammad Ali, at the press conference on 20 October 2016 at ITB Asia in Singapore.
“Southeast Asia is both a united and beautifully diverse destination, and our partners will help us get that message across to a global audience.”
Mr Wardi told the media that the key target markets for VISIT ASEAN@50 are Europe, Middle East and North America, as well as mid-haul markets such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, and intra-ASEAN. The aim is to raise tourism receipts to USD83 billion and increase average length of stay to 6-7 days, he said.
ASEANTA
The ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) is also supporting the 50th anniversary of ASEAN with unique and discounted offers to the global travel trade, while GOASEAN, a multi-award winning content provider, will partner ASEAN in producing promotional videos as well as support advertising on its TV and social media platforms.
At the World Travel Market in London in November 2016, the VISIT ASEAN@50 campaign will reveal another 50 special tourism products and trips that will form one of the key pillars of the overall campaign.
The VISIT ASEAN@50 campaign will officially be launched at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Singapore on 18 January 2017 and will run till 31 December 2017.
