Wego gets Ace project

A new website promoting the 10-member countries of Asean will be launched 25 January during the Asean Tourism Forum in Brunei.

SoutheastAsia.org is the product of Bangkok-based Asean Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Regional Development Mission Asia.

Headed by a career consultant, R.J Gurley, ACE signed a deal with the regional trade association, Aseanta, during ATF in Hanoi last January, to develop tourism branding for Asean destinations with a website SoutheastAsia.org as the trading portal.

ACE has since teamed up with Singapore-based Wego Pte Ltd, which runs its own portal for hotels, airlines, tours and car rental services, worldwide.

Wego will provide a search engine with “meta-search capability” for SoutheastAsia.org, plus other content features such as bookings, secure payments and commission transactions between vendors.

The deal with Wego was signed 9 December, almost 11 months after ACE signed off with Aseanta.

Wego will offer a capability to search dozens of sites before presenting results integrated into an interactive map and trip planner using its current technology at www.wego.com. Wego will host and maintain SoutheastAsia.org, and according to the official statement share revenue with Aseanta.