TAT promotes “Single Journey’ routes encouraging single Thais to travel domestically

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) together with Thai Smile Airways, leading online travel and lifestyle platform Drive Digital, and application Tinder have launched a collection of new ‘Single Journey’ tours around Thailand specifically designed for the single traveller.

TAT Governor, Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, said, “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed travel behaviour and necessitates that we think ‘out-of-the-box’. The ‘Single Travel Route’ targets solo travellers who prefer to travel alone to various destinations in Thailand.”

TAT is preparing nine Single Journey tour routes at destinations around Thailand, including Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai – Chiang Rai, Lop Buri – Saraburi, Si Sa Ket – Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani – Loei, Chumphon – Surat Thani, Phuket, Ayutthaya, and Bangkok.

To help launch the new Single Journey tour product, TAT and its partners are organising three pilot tours for interested single travellers.

The first trip will take place on 20 December, 2020, and is free-of-charge to join with space available for up to 100 single Thai travellers. Organised together with Grand Pearl Cruise, this is a cruise along Bangkok’s famous Chao Phraya River taking in nine temples and hosted by renowned fortune teller and Feng Shui expert Chang-Tosaporn Sritula, who will share tips on how to pay homage to Buddha and ask for blessings. The full-day trip includes a cruise dinner.

The second trip is on 9 January, 2021, with seats for 50 single Thais at 222 Baht per person. This is being organised with Love Andaman and involves a beachside party concert at Ko Kai in Phuket.

The third trip is on 23 January, 2021, for up to 50 single Thais and priced at 555 Baht per person, and is an exclusive train tour in cooperation with the State Railway of Thailand to Pa Sak Jolasid Dam in Lop Buri with a meal at the Dam included.

Singles interested to join any of the three pilot trips can make bookings from 15 December, 2020, onwards.

For more information on Single Journey routes from TAT and partners, please go to the official LINE @singlejourney account, www.tourismthailand.org or www.sneaksdeal.com/singlejourney

Khiri Travel To Go Carbon Neutral From January 2021

Khiri introduces comprehensive offsetting program with ClimateCare and new low emissions ‘slow travel’ holiday options

Asian DMC Khiri Travel is on its way to becoming fully carbon neutral. As part of its approach to take responsibility for its impact on the environment, Khiri Travel has partnered with climate and sustainable development experts ClimateCare. The result will be the complete offsetting of carbon emissions for Khiri guests’ holidays and Khiri’s own operations, starting in January 2021. This includes CO2 emissions generated by all of Khiri’s offices in seven Asian destinations, staff commuting, and all business travel by Khiri employees.

Once travelers arrive in Southeast Asia, Khiri Travel will offset carbon emissions for guest trips by charging US$1.50 per person per day. The aim is to offset entire itineraries, including accommodation, activities and transport. Funds will go to ClimateCare’s best-in-class carbon reduction projects in the Asian region.

Herman Hoven the CEO of Khiri Travel said that Khiri had calculated the average carbon footprint of its itineraries. As a result, a carbon offset rate of US$1.50 per person per day will be automatically added to each travel proposal to partners. Hoven said that partners would have the possibility to opt out if they had their own carbon offsetting program in place. “Otherwise the US$1.50 fee will apply,” he said.

“Our overall aim is to do our best to improve environmental management and decrease any negative impacts on our destinations,” said Hoven. “We want to ensure that not only Khiri as a company, but all our operations on the ground, are carbon neutral.”

ClimateCare’s Director of Partnerships, Robert Stevens, said: “We work with forward-thinking organisations such as Khiri Travel to turn their climate responsibilities into positive outcomes, which also support sustainable development.”

To further reduce CO2 emissions, Khiri Travel has introduced a new product line: “Rediscovering The Art of Slow Travel”. In these trips there will be no regional flights. All transport will be by train, car or boat. Itineraries will typically be a minimum of 15 days. Accommodation will be vetted against Khiri’s social, cultural and environmental criteria. And excursions will benefit the host communities, mostly in less developed regions.

“By offering longer duration trips in-destination, with much less flying, Khiri’s guests will greatly reduce their carbon footprint,” said Nia Klatte, Khiri Travel’s Regional Sustainability Coordinator. “It also gives guests time to slow down and immerse themselves in the local area.”

On climate action, Khiri’s position is to follow current advice from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which recommends cutting global carbon emissions to 55% of 2017 levels by 2030 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 o C (2.7 o F).

Khiri Travel’s climate position is explained here. Its climate emergency strategy is here. Khiri Travel is a signatory of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency.

More information: khiri.com

How Marriott International is leading the way in sustainable hospitality

Tired of all the industry lip service to sustainability, Anne Lim-Chaplain travels all the way to Bangkok to check out Marriott International’s hotels, which are truly making a difference.

“I’m so sick of it!” That line from Jo March in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 period drama Little Women is stuck in my head. I’m so sick of the heartbreaking impact of climate change on every living being on Earth. I’m so angry about the uncontrollable bushfires as a consequence of extreme weather conditions that are destroying beautiful lives, creatures and nature. I’m so tired of the damage done to our oceans. I’m so fed up with the injustice, waste and poverty in the world.

We are living through a global environmental crisis, but there is hope. People are demanding change – and businesses must help lead the way. One such organisation is Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel company, with 30 brands in 132 countries, more than 7,000 hotels and some 133 million members. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, it has more than 780 properties. Just imagine the difference this hotel chain can make by using their size and scale as a force for good, and by finding innovative ways to operate more sustainably and responsibly.

 

And that’s just what it’s doing. In 2017, Marriott International launched its sustainability and social-impact platform – Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction. Through Serve 360, the company is committed to serving the local communities where they do business. By 2025, it aims to decrease waste to landfills by 45 percent, cut food waste by 50 percent, and reduce water and carbon intensity by 15 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

“Travellers are increasingly concerned about the impact of tourism on the destinations they visit, so it’s important that we are transparent with our sustainability efforts and how we’re progressing,” says Craig S. Smith, Group President, Marriott International Asia Pacific. “We’ve made some great strides in advancing sustainability in Asia-Pacific over the last two years, and we will continue to positively impact the communities and environments in which we operate.”

Recently, I was able to experience the exceptional hospitality and sustainability initiatives at the Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park Hotel. I loved my beautifully appointed suite and all the food-and-beverage outlets were outstanding. More than that, though, I was impressed by the team’s passion and commitment to sustainability efforts in a number of areas, including sourcing responsibly and locally, reducing food waste and serving the community. To reduce food waste,the culinary team, headed by executive chef Michael Hogan and senior executive sous chef Daniel Bucher, launched the “Second Love” concept at Goji Kitchen + Bar, which aims to make use of all those ingredients that would otherwise be sent to landfill. From the moment we arrived at the hotel in an electric Mercedes-Benz, it was a hands-on experience as we made our own Second Love welcome cocktail with pineapple peels.

Pineapple skin contains active yeasts and bacteria, so the chefs ferment it to create a delicious pineapple vinegar. Every week, the team slices 150 kilograms of pineapples, resulting in 85 kilograms of pineapple peel. After four weeks of fermentation and another four weeks of ageing, they produce 50 litres of wonderful pineapple vinegar, which is a key ingredient in the hotel’s signature pineapple and passionfruit gin cocktail.

In the evening, we picked our own herbs from the hotel’s herb garden and collected our own organic eggs. It was a joy to learn how to cook delicious, healthy zero-waste meals with Chef Daniel and Chef Michael.

On average, the Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park Hotel contributes 37.5 kilograms of food per day to the Scholars of Sustenance Foundation Thailand (SOS) network, which redistributes meals to those in need in Bangkok. We had the opportunity to visit Father Joe’s Mercy Centre, one of the recipients of the Marriott’s food via SOS, to see first-hand how this relationship not only nourishes the children in this centre, but also provides for the entire family unit as the children bring the food home, too. It’s no wonder that Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park Hotel became the first urban five-star hotel in the world to receive the Pledge on Food Waste certification; it continues to work towards the company’s goal to achieve zero-waste to landfill.

Read more: https://hashtaglegend.com/culture/ready-new-view-for-the-new-year-marriott-international/

ADB Supports Thailand’s Green, Social, and Sustainability Bonds for COVID-19 Recovery

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the Government of Thailand in designing, issuing, and monitoring innovative capital market initiatives as part of the country’s recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in a manner aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

ADB’s technical assistance through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF) includes bond framework development and external reviews to help Thailand’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) and National Housing Authority (NHA) design green, social, and sustainability bonds based on global and ASEAN standards and best practices. ADB is also helping the government develop internal systems to monitor the use of bond proceeds and prepare post-issuance reports. These measures will help lay the groundwork for more green, social, and sustainability bond issuances.

The initiatives include support for Thailand’s first sustainability bond, a first-of-a-kind issuance by a sovereign in Southeast Asia. Issued by MOF’s Public Debt Management Office in two tranches totaling THB30 billion (about $964 million) on 13–14 August, the bond was oversubscribed three times, and its proceeds will be used to finance green infrastructure through the Mass Rapid Transit Orange Line (East) Project. It will also fund social impact projects supporting the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as public health measures, job creation through small and medium-sized enterprises, and local public infrastructure development with social and environmental benefits.

ADB also supported the NHA’s maiden social bond, which was issued on 23 September in three tranches totaling THB6.8 billion. It is among the first social bonds issued by a state-owned enterprise in Southeast Asia. The bond will finance affordable housing in Thailand and promote sustainable communities. Other green and sustainability bonds are in development.

“We are delighted to support these pioneering initiatives by the Government of Thailand,” said Country Director of ADB Thailand Resident Mission Hideaki Iwasaki. “These social and sustainability bonds will help the country recover from COVID-19 by focusing on long-term, green, and inclusive infrastructure.”

“As countries face an increasing financing gap for climate-resilient infrastructure, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential for governments to tap into domestic and global capital markets with green and sustainability bonds,” said ACGF Unit Head Anouj Mehta.

ADB is preparing a new country partnership strategy to support Thailand’s economic recovery with a pipeline of green and climate-resilient infrastructure projects. The strategy will also focus on rebuilding regional cooperation through the Greater Mekong Subregion program and other platforms.

ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department has been supporting green finance development in Thailand. Projects include a THB5 billion purchase of B.Grimm Power Public Company Limited’s initial 5-year and 7-year green bonds in 2018. These were the first certified climate bonds to be issued in Thailand. ADB purchased a THB3 billion tranche within Energy Absolute Public Company Limited’s first green bond issuance of THB10 billion in 2019.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

UNWTO tracks travel recovery

As more countries around the world start easing travel restrictions, the UNWTO has launched a new tourism recovery tracker to support the sector’s rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Touted as the “most comprehensive tourism dashboard to date”, the tracker is the result of a partnership between the private sector and international organisations, including the ICAO, ForwardKeys, STR, Sojern and AirDNA.

Available for free, it covers key tourism performance indicators by month, regions and sub-regions, allowing for a real-time comparison of the sector recovery across the world and industries.

The UNWTO Tourism Recovery Tracker compiles all the relevant data in one place, giving governments and the private businesses the ability to track the recovery of tourism at global and regional level, alongside information on the top destinations for international tourism.

The tracker includes data on international tourist arrivals, seat capacity in international and domestic air routes, air travel bookings, hotel searches and bookings, occupancy rates and demand for short-term rentals.

According to UNWTO latest World Tourism Barometer, the massive drop in international travel demand over the period from January to June 2020 translates into a loss of 440 million international arrivals and about US$460 billion in export revenues from international tourism. This is around five times the loss in international tourism receipts recorded in 2009 amid the global economic and financial crisis.

Winners of the 2020 Experience Mekong Showcases announced

Bangkok, August 28, 2020:  The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office announced the 6 Winners of the 2020 Experience Mekong Showcases. From 60 shortlisted businesses of the over 350 Experience Mekong Collection members, nearly 10,000 eligible votes narrowed down to 18 finalists (3 from each of the six GMS member countries), and finally recognizing the six 2020 Experience Mekong Showcases.

The winners were announced at the Virtual Destination Mekong Summit on August 25th. The videos announcing the winners can be viewed at:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmQJUJeZGFWbbubEplhL0A/videos

The 6 Experience Mekong Showcases of 2020 – 1 from each of the 6 member countries of the Mekong Region are:

The Experience Mekong Collection was created three years ago to both recognize and encourage sustainable and responsible tourism development in the Greater Mekong Subregion.  

In order to be appointed as member of the Experience Mekong Collection, all small travel businesses in the Mekong Region need to fulfill the following requirements:

  1. Make a significant social impact to its community
  2. Provide an authentically local experience positioning the GMS as a responsible, inclusive, and experiential tourism destination.
  3. Have an innovative concept and sustainable business model.

Members of the Mekong Tourism Advisory Group (MeTAG) selected the 60 shortlisted Experience Mekong Collection (EMC) member businesses – ten from each of the six GMS member countries  from the 350+ members of the Experience Mekong Collection.

“The importance of responsible tourism cannot be underestimated and the ‘Experience Mekong Collection’ is a wonderful way of highlighting examples of good practice. Social enterprises have the potential to drive sustainable tourism and to promote the Mekong Region as an experiential and responsible travel destination. We aim to tell their stories to inspire travelers to experience these “shining lights of the Mekong,” said Mr. Jens Thraenhart,  Executive Director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO).

In January 2020, at the FITUR travel trade show in Madrid, Spain, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) featured the Experience Mekong Collection as a global best practice on tourism aligned to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2018 Experience Mekong Collection Showcases included Phare Cambodian Circus (Cambodia), Longji Rice Terraces Guangxi (PR China), Ock Pop Tok (Lao PDR), Inle Heritage Place (Myanmar), Local Alike (Thailand), and Koto (Viet Nam). The 2019 Experience Mekong Collection included Soksabike (Cambodia), Linden Centre (PR China), Elephant Conservation Centre (Lao PDR), Hla Day (Myanmar), Sampran Riverside (Thailand), and Streets International (Viet Nam). Please see: https://www.destinationmekong.com/initiatives/experience-mekong-showcases/

All members of the Experience Mekong Collection get exposure via channels of Mekong Tourism and Destination Mekong, including MekongTourism.org, DestinationMekong.com, ExperienceMekong.com, as well as the dedicated Experience Mekong Collection Facebook and Instagram accounts. Experience Mekong Collection members also have priority access to marketing campaigns and have their own dedicated online member-only community to connect with each other.

In order to help struggling members of the Experience Mekong Collection to survive these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, a support page has been created at https://www.destinationmekong.com/projects/support-experience-mekong-collection-members/ to list businesses asking for donations or selling gift certificates. Please support these small businesses by visiting: For more information about the Experience Mekong Collection and its members, please visit www.experiencemekong.com.

 

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About the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office:

The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), located in Bangkok, was set up with funding from the governments of the six Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries – Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The MTCO, which operates on annual financial contributions from each GMS country, acts as the secretariat for the GMS Tourism Working Group, comprising of senior officials of the six GMS countries’ National Tourism Organizations, to coordinate and facilitate sustainable tourism development of the GMS, and promotion of the Mekong region as a single travel and tourism destination, in collaboration with the public and private sectors. The MTCO manages its award-winning MekongTourism.org digital platform as a one-stop platform to promote responsible and sustainable tourism in the region, as well as the annual Mekong Tourism Forum, whose hosting is rotated among GMS countries.

Please visit www.MekongTourism.org for more information.

 

About Destination Mekong:

Destination Mekong was created in 2017 to promote the Lancang-Mekong region, comprising of Cambodia, PR China (Provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam as a single tourism destination to stimulate responsible and sustainable development and investment, and drive inclusive growth. Endorsed by the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office and aligned with the mandate of the regional collaborative tourism framework of the six-member governments of the Greater Mekong Sub-region, Destination Mekong executes targeted projects and initiatives, including Mekong Moments, Mekong Memories, Mekong Deals, Mekong Mini Movie Festival, Mekong Innovative Start-ups in Tourism (MIST), Experience Mekong Collection, Mekong Heroes, and Mekong Trends, with feedback from the Mekong Tourism Advisory Group (MeTAG) and via public-private partnership investment structure, led by UNWTO Affiliate Member Chameleon Strategies.

More information at: www.DestinationMekong.com

First Mekong Hero announced at Destination Mekong Summit

Founder of Thailand Community-based Tourism Institute honored

Bangkok, July 7, 2020:  The  ‘Mekong Heroes’ is a new program, initiated by the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) and Destination Mekong, to celebrate colleagues in Mekong tourism who work tirelessly behind the scenes to “inspire and influence the direction of our industry, modeling new ways of conceiving and doing tourism better.”  Two Mekong Heroes will be selected per year, who will join the Mekong Heroes Gallery. We will tell their personal stories to inspire others. Nominations are always open at: https://www.destinationmekong.com/initiatives/mekong-heroes/, and the next Mekong Hero will be announced on February 25th at the Mekong Tourism Forum in Bagan, Myanmar.

According to Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO): “Achieving a prosperous and sustainable tourism industry is not possible without committed leaders, with special kinds of vision and determination. The Mekong Heroes program is important so the whole industry benefits from their authenticity of vision, purpose, commitment, and determination; maintained over years of hard work. Recognized not only as builders, creators, and innovators, but also as mentors, teachers, and motivators, these individuals have made it their mission to bring out the best in people.”

The first Mekong Hero was announced during the Virtual Destination Mekong Summit on August 25th.

Selected among dozens of nominations and endorsed by chair of the Mekong Heroes Selection Committee HE Mr. Htay Aung, former Minister of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar, Ms. Potjana Suansri has been selected as the first Mekong Hero. She gave a brief speech via video conferencing, which can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/2Yz_mgjiAi4

Ms. Potjana Suansri is the founder of the Thailand Community-Based Tourism Institute (CBT-I), and currently is serving as cultural tourism capacity building expert for the UN International Trade Center (ITC) Myanmar Inclusive Tourism project.

Khun Potjana, known affectionately as ‘P Noi’ is one of the true pioneers of community based tourism (CBT) in Asia. For over thirty years, Potjana has worked tirelessly alongside community members and other tourism stakeholders, learning how to put greater local community participation and benefits from tourism into practice.

Potjana’s work, as a thought leader and practical field worker started decades before ‘community-based tourism’ and ‘local experiences’ gained mainstream support as a market trend, tourism product and development strategy.

Potjana started her career as a social worker for Plan International, working with urban migrants being evicted from Bangkok’s slums. These experiences convinced her that rural Thais would benefit from better livelihoods opportunities in the countryside; motivating her to find alternatives to migrating to the city for work.

In 1991, at Thailand Volunteer Service (TVS), Potjana started organising rural study tours as a strategy to bring the struggles and successes of rural Thai communities to the attention of Thailand’s urban classes. Potjana supervised recent Thai graduates to work alongside community members as volunteers.

In 1994, based on the positive results which these study tours had brought to the communities, Potjana and her colleagues founded the Responsible, Ecological, Social Tours Project (REST) under TVS. In 2001, ‘REST’ became an independent organisation. REST’s work began to influence national tourism debate, proving that local communities could be actors in tourism development, and tourism could be a development tool. In 2003, Potjana wrote the acclaimed REST CBT Handbook (2003), which was used as a blueprint by rural tourism practitioners around Asia and further afield. REST was co-organiser of the 2002 International Year of Ecotourism Regional Conference in SE Asia and received a World Legacy Award in 2003 from Conservation International and National Geographic Traveler.

In 2006, Potjana directed and developed the Thailand Community-Based Tourism Institute (CBT-I) from an innovative action research project into a legally registered, internationally respected knowledge hub for Community-Based Tourism. CBT-I coordinated the Thai CBT movement, working with civil society to successfully lobby the Thai government to formalize local community participation in, and benefits from, rural tourism at policy level; and engaging tour operators and tourism associations to understand, support and sell CBT.

Since 2014, Potjana has been busy sharing her experience with neighbours in the GMS, as an expert on Capacity Building and Product Development for the ground-breaking United Nations International Trade Center (ITC), NTF Myanmar Inclusive Tourism Project, in Kayah State and Dawei District, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar.

According to the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and regional champion of sustainable tourism, Mr. Pradech Phayakvichien:

“Potjana is a modest, generous person, who is happy to work hard in the background, away from the spotlight. However, the influence of her work and ideas on government, private sector, academic and NGO programs, catalyzing and demonstrating how to drive local benefits into responsible tourism is massive.”

Ms. May Myat Mon Win, Chairperson of the Myanmar Tourism Marketing Association voiced her appreciation of Potjana’s role sharing lessons learned with Myanmar:

“Step by step, Potjana’s work has built the skills, confidence and opportunities of local community members in Thailand, Myanmar, and across the Greater Mekong Subregion to influence and benefit more from local tourism development. Without her contribution, there is no doubt that our region would have far less knowledge about how to do ‘great local experiences with real local benefits’ well. Potjana is truly fitting for recognition and appreciation as the first Mekong Hero.”

To learn more about Potjana’s work, read the in-depth interview at Sustainability Leaders: https://sustainability-leaders.com/potjana-suansri-interview/

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About the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office:

The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO), located in Bangkok, was set up with funding from the governments of the six Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries – Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The MTCO, which operates on annual financial contributions from each GMS country, acts as the secretariat for the GMS Tourism Working Group, comprising of senior officials of the six GMS countries’ National Tourism Organizations, to coordinate and facilitate sustainable tourism development of the GMS, and promotion of the Mekong region as a single travel and tourism destination, in collaboration with the public and private sectors. The MTCO manages its award-winning MekongTourism.org digital platform as a one-stop platform to promote responsible and sustainable tourism in the region, as well as the annual Mekong Tourism Forum, whose hosting is rotated among GMS countries.

Please visit www.MekongTourism.org for more information.

 

About Destination Mekong:

Destination Mekong was created in 2017 to promote the Lancang-Mekong region, comprising of Cambodia, PR China (Provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam as a single tourism destination to stimulate responsible and sustainable development and investment, and drive inclusive growth. Endorsed by the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office and aligned with the mandate of the regional collaborative tourism framework of the six-member governments of the Greater Mekong Sub-region, Destination Mekong executes targeted projects and initiatives, including Mekong Moments, Mekong Memories, Mekong Deals, Mekong Mini Movie Festival, Mekong Innovative Start-ups in Tourism (MIST), Experience Mekong Collection, Mekong Heroes, and Mekong Trends, with feedback from the Mekong Tourism Advisory Group (MeTAG) and via public-private partnership investment structure, led by UNWTO Affiliate Member Chameleon Strategies.

More information at: www.DestinationMekong.com