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24 Mar, 2017

High ratings for first resinar “ASEAN Travel & Tourism: The Next 50 Years”

Bangkok – The first resinar (newly-coined shorthand for ‘research’ and ‘seminar’) organised in Bangkok on “ASEAN Travel & Tourism: The Next 50 Years” has been warmly applauded by many of the participants.

Fifteen participants attended the March 17 resinar at the PATA Engagement Hub, designed to mark the 50th anniversary of ASEAN by providing the travel & tourism industry with an update of the many historic and ongoing developments that have shaped one of ASEAN’s most successful economic sectors.

It was also designed to initiate constructive debate about its future directions, especially as the next ASEAN Tourism Forum will be held in Chiang Mai in January 2018. Although the ASEAN tourism industry has done many things right, it still needs to learn from the lessons of history in what will clearly be a new era for the entire industry.

Feedback communicated to Resinar Organiser and Presenter Imtiaz Muqbil, Executive Editor, Travel Impact Newswire, speaks for itself:

Dr Mario Hardy, Chief Executive Officer, PATA, said: “In one afternoon, I’ve learned more about the history of ASEAN, it’s future, it’s opportunities and challenges than I expected. Award winner journalist and historian, Imtiaz Muqbil shared valuable and thought provoking insights into the future of ASEAN.”

Professor Dr Pornpimol Chutisilp, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Research, Rangsit University said, “Thank you for the fruitful information you have provided particularly the information from each of the ASEAN countries … Some information is quite new to me and those pieces of information from the strategic plans of the countries are very beneficial since we can also see clearly the directions of tourism in our region (ASEAN).

“I can use the information to improve or even to come up with new courses so as to support the ASEAN tourism strategies, and at the same time to prepare our Thai graduates for the job positions in the near future. We have to be ready for that to build up competencies and hospitality skills to live in this competitive world.”

Bertie Lawson, Business Development, Sampan Travel, Myanmar said, “Thank you so much. I found the resinar very interesting. It was nice to have an overview of ASEAN tourism both past and present so to be able to view tourism in Myanmar in context – context of both time and place.”

Dr. Adarsh Batra, Program Director, Master of Business Administration in Tourism Management & PHDHTM, Graduate School of Business, Assumption University of Thailand, appreciated the opportunity come up to speed with “valuable information.”

Ms Sriporn Bhekananda, Tourism Authority of Thailand, called the resinar “very inspirational.”

The young PATA interns also enjoyed the updates:

Ms Grace Yuen, China: “I really love your presentation, especially the part about the forecast of ASEAN, its possible challenges and your conclusion about this presentation. It is very organized, informative and interesting.

“For me, the first part is a little bit hard to follow. You gave a very detailed history of ASEAN, which was good, but those names, locations were difficult to understand. The second part is better than the first part. You talked about marketing strategies, tourism resources and trends of each ASEAN members, especially their promotion methods, which was helpful and interesting.

“The final part is the best. You analyzed the challenges and possibilities of ASEAN, which was very convincing. Also, you talked about how ASEAN used challenged budget to do their marketing, which was unique.

“The part of ASEAN social-cultural community and the importance of integrated culture, which you illustrated with plenty of examples, just lightened the whole presentation.

Thank you for your sharing.”

Christoph Wegener, Germany: Good overall overview of countries and their unique selling points, I would have wished to engage more but the time was running out in the end, a stronger focus on the future of the tourism would be helpful, good explanation of ASEAN and their work.

Quynh Pham (Wendy), Vietnam:   Valuable insights into tourism development of ASEAN – It was great that you provided the overview of ASEAN region as a whole, as well as the situation of each individual country. Your passion for ASEAN tourism was clearly shown during the presentation. Great powerpoint and illustration that helped the presentation go smoothly.

Lim Jung Min (Junny), Taiwan: It was really engaging presentation because you have covered every detail like products, policies and promotional strategies of each ASEAN country. I could get a better understanding and further insight about the ASEAN Tourism. Also, I really liked when you asked us some interactive questions, I could notice how I was unaware of ASEAN Countries and made me feel the necessity to study more about ASEAN Tourism.

Contents were so interesting and informative, but when it lasted more than 2 hours without taking any breaks, I started to lose my concentration. So it would be better to take more short breaks.

Personally, I think that conclusion is as important as body part because it always comes up with some solutions. I was looking forward to the conclusion which was SWOT analysis of the challenges facing ASEAN tourism in the next 50 years, but I couldn’t hear a lot about this part. It would be better if you spend more time on the conclusion.”

The participants at the resinar.

PATA CEO Mario Hardy opened the resinar with a few words of introduction.

Resinar Presenter Imtiaz Muqbil

Bangkok –