This year’s Thailand Travel Mart Plus (TTM+2013), to be held between June 5-7, will break new ground with two first-time events: the participation of Yunnan Provincial Tourism Administration and the introduction of debates to the Travel Forum.
Both will help expand the quality of participation in Thailand’s largest business to business event, and also raise the level of intellectual discussion to a new high.
The Yunnan Provincial Tourism Administration has a registered team of 26 delegates to participate in TTM+. This is a very important step forward, as the TTM+ is designed to showcase the exciting tourism products of the entire Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) which includes Yunnan Province of China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, and Cambodia.
Yunnan is located in the lower southwestern part of China and shares a long border with Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Myanmar. It is also close to Thailand, Bangladesh and Bhutan, making it an important gateway to Southeast and South Asia. Yunnan’s 16 prefectures and municipalities have a total population of 44 million, including 25 minority groups. Its capital is Kunming.
Yunnan’s unique tourist attractions include magnificent snow mountains and glaciers in the north, vast tropical forests in the south that are homes to rare fauna and flora species, the meandering and roaring “Three Rivers On Parallel” in the west, the spectacular karst landforms in the east and volcanoes in the southwest.
In recent years, it has seen a significant development of infrastructure and transportation networks. Kunming Changshui International Airport is now the fifth largest airport in China, with connections to 10 cities within Yunnan Province, 60 cities within China and 14 international cities, such as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Seoul, Yangon, Mandalay, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Noi, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Dhaka.
The emergence of road and rail links, including the Asian Highway and the Trans Asian Railway, will also enhance its connections with Bangkok, Mandalay (Myanmar) and Ha Noi (Viet Nam). River navigation along the Mekong is also on the rise. All this will make Yunnan a very important point on the tour package circuit.
On 28 April 2012, TAT and China (Yunnan) signed a memorandum of understanding on promoting the flow of tourists between the two countries.
TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni welcomed these special developments at the TTM. At the same time, the inclusion of debates is now important in order to broaden industry discourse and provide an opportunity for such important issues to be discussed in a comprehensive manner.
