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Source: Bangkok Post
Asean is attempting to redefine the collaborative marketing of the region as a tourism destination with support from the United States.
A new strategy was developed after previous attempts to promote Asean as a holiday destination had poor results, said R.J. Gurley, the director of Asean Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE).
“Based on input from national tourism organisations, everyone was almost unanimous in saying that where we really need help is on branding and marketing,” he said.
ACE was set up by Nathan Associates, a consulting firm hired by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help the regional bloc achieve its goal of establishing the Asean Economic Community by 2015.
The ACE programme identified tourism as the second core sector for development after textiles and clothing.
The new marketing strategy focuses on attracting tourists from outside Asean to travel to the region and to visit more than one country, said Mr Gurley.
“We wanted them to stay longer and we wanted them to spend more money,” he said.
A “Visit Asean” campaign has been running for eight years with little success, he noted.
“The first thing that I did was to look at what the competition is doing. There are a number of successful regional destination marketing campaigns. There is a ‘Visit the Caribbean’, for example, where something like 22 independent island nations have joined together in marketing the Caribbean as a region.”
The South Pacific and Europe offer other examples, he said. “And in our research we felt that Europe was probably the best model for a regional campaign for Southeast Asia,” said Mr Gurley.
The European Travel Commission, founded in 1948, comprises 32 countries making it broader than the 27-member European Union. Two years ago it decided to transfer all of its marketing resources to online marketing.
“It is the most cost-effective marketing method. TV, radio and such like are just too expensive for the very limited budget that we have. With today’s internet marketing capabilities, you can do very targeted marketing and it is the most effective dollar for dollar way that you can market,” said Mr Gurley.
“Their website, visiteurope.com, shows us the difference between their model and Asean’s model. They are saying ‘Visit Europe’. They are not saying ‘Visit the European Union’.”
In 2007, the University of Queensland assessed the Visit Asean campaign and found it was largely unsuccessful because Asean is not seen as a destination.
“In fact, in the US most people have never heard of Asean. The same thing in Europe. When I tell people I’m working with Asean, they will usually say. ‘Do you mean Asia?’ As a result, if you’re a tourist in Europe and you’re thinking about coming to the region, you don’t Google ‘Asean travel’,” he said.
According to the report, the Visit Asean campaign was launched without conducting adequate market research, there was no funding for the campaign and there was no organisation to manage it.
In January 2009, the ACE project signed with the Asean Travel Association (Aseanta), to co-operatively develop a new research-based marketing strategy.
“We think it is important to brand Asean, but we should be branding Asean for what it is, which is a political, economic and social community, and have [Aseanta] be the sponsor of a Southeast Asia marketing campaign.”
The new website, southeastasia.org, will be formally launched at the Asean Tourism Forum, which runs from Jan 21-28 in Brunei. Its tagline – “Southeast Asia: Feel the Warmth” – and logo will be based on the theme of cultural diversity
and warm hospitality.
The Singapore-based firm Wego will be the website’s engine for booking flights to multi-destination packages.
While research shows that people prefer visiting faraway places, the marketing programme will initially focus on the intermediate- and long-haul market as the global recession has curbed consumer travel spending, said Mr Gurley.
ACE will be looking at Europe and Australia, and is currently assessing the Indian market. Young travellers who visit more than one country will also be targeted, along with baby boomers and retirees who have time to travel.
The ACE project is fully funded by USAID with a total budget of US$7.9 million over five years, split between textiles and apparel and tourism. ACE is planning to put $500,000 into online marketing in the first year, said Mr Gurley.
With further support from regional governments, he is confident of success.
“I have every confidence that we will have greater success than the previous campaign because we are addressing the problems identified with that campaign,” he said.
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