Ace signs up CAT in KL
A new partnership was announced, this week, that will give small and medium-sized tourism operators in Asean an online presence, even if they do not have a website.
The initiative is the result of successful negotiations between Creative Advances Technology and the company, Nathan Associates Inc that manages the Asean Competitiveness Enhancement Project funded by USAID. The new platform allows tourism players to go online and get new business for free.
Creative Advances Technology is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tour operators in the Asean region will be able to feature their packages on a variety of sites including www.southeastasia.org that was launched 26 January during the Asean Tourism Forum. No details were available on when the facility will be ready, but www.southeastasia.org is due for a full launch at ITB in early March.
The website, flagged the official site of Aseanta , uses Standard Online Tourism Architecture. SOTA uses networking links to connect travel businesses with potential customers, both trade and consumer. To date, SOTA connects over 900 travel agents and over 15,000 travel suppliers’ worldwide.
Through this online platform, tourism players can network within the industry more effectively, which should benefit Asean’s SME tour operators who lack technical and financial resources.
“The online tourism industry continues to grow quickly as travel customers look for more convenient ways to research, plan, book and purchase their travel,” said SOTA Chief Executive Officer and founder, Rohizam Md Yusoff,. “With SOTA, Asean’s travel operators, who are not online ,can now compete globally.”
Mr Yusoff said that there were thousands of travel agents in Asean but only a handful was active online.
“The Aseanta website and SOTA are perfect partners to provide one standard platform. SOTA allows travel operators to reach more customers, connect with tourism inventories throughout Asean, and obtain information such as the latest tourism statistics,” said Mr Yusoff.
ACE project director, R.J. Gurley, said: “This collaboration will allow Asean tourism players to distribute and sell their great travel products in multiple participating websites and travel blogs and also the new SoutheastAsia.org meta-search site.”
The Pacific Asia Travel Association is also tied into the SOTA initiative to enable it to host a “facebook” style data base where member companies can update their own data and pursue business opportunities on line with other members.
This bollocks continues. Southeast Asia working together to be this wonderful travel and tourism destination is a myth of marketing and spin. Do you see anyone in Europe doing something similar, or South America? You don’t get the Visit Canada people saying it is just a short hop from the US, and the Patagonians have little nice to say about Brazil. Most people in Europe don’t understand Asia, let alone a grouping of 10 totally independent and different countries who are now being promoted by a US-funded mouthpiece as the bed of harmony. It is a crime against all who work hard in this industry. There has to be a deeper look into the funding, because it smacks of CIA manipulation through the puppet USAID … and boy, are there takers of the dollars in this borough.