Lonely Planet Joins New Southeast Asia Tourism Campaign

BANGKOK, 22 February 2010 – The latest Lonely Planet content is now featured on SoutheastAsia.org, the new tourism website for the region created by the ASEAN Tourism Association.

SoutheastAsia.org is now the primary medium for ASEAN’s new global marketing campaign, “Southeast Asia: feel the warmth.”

The new site aims to promote Southeast Asia as a single tourism destination. The meta-search site makes it easy to research and book multi-destination travel to and within Southeast Asia. The site uses meta-search technology developed by Singapore-based Wego Travel Search

Lonely Planet has supplied destination profiles for 10 ASEAN member countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“Our digital content encourages this exploration with a huge range of information, from local history and culture, to specific places to eat, shop and rest,” said Mr Richard Samson, Lonely Planet’s General Manager Asia Pacific.

The site allows travellers to research, plan, book and discuss a wide range travel experiences across the region.

“Lonely Planet understands the benefits responsible travel can bring to communities,” said Samson. “We’re happy to be involved in this worthy project to assist travellers planning their journey to not just the major cities, but off the beaten track and across the wonderful region of Southeast Asia,” he said.

A campaign is now under way to encourage travellers to also submit their own text videos, comments and reviews to SoutheastAisa.org, which soft-launched at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Brunei on 25 January.

“The aim is to inspire and motivate travellers to discover the most diverse and welcoming region of the world,” said the website’s Content & Marketing Manager, Mr Scott Holmes of the ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement project.

“Southeast Asia: feel the warmth” and SoutheastAsia.org is an initiative of ASEANTA, a public and private travel industry association headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its members comprise ASEAN government tourism departments and private sector travel associations from the region. “Southeast Asia: feel the warmth” is supported and managed by USAID’s ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement office based in Bangkok.

For editors: Images of Southeast Asian destinations and the Southeast Asia: feel the warmth logo can be downloaded here.

About the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA)
The ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) was formed in 1971. It is a non-profit tourism association comprising both public and private tourism sector organizations from ASEAN. ASEANTA has grown to become a tourism association of influence within the ASEAN tourism landscape, playing an integral role in shaping tourism development growth and policies in the ASEAN region. Click on the link for more information and the ASEANTA mission statement.

About ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE)
ACE was designed and funded by USAID’s Regional Development Mission in Asia (RDMA). The project’s objective is to enhance the integration and competitiveness imperatives of two of ASEAN’s priority sectors: travel & tourism and textiles & apparel. USAID’s ACE Project is part of the broader ASEAN-US Enhanced Partnership, which was launched in 2006 when the United States pledged its support to ASEAN in pursuing its objective of becoming an ASEAN Community by 2015. The ACE Project is managed by Nathan Associates Inc. E-mail: rjgurley@ace-advance.com. Website: www.ace-advance.com.

About the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the United States’ foreign policy goals. USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA) was established in Bangkok in 2003 to manage bilateral USAID programs in Asian countries without USAID Missions, such as Burma, China, Laos, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea, and to address regional and transnational issues across all of Asia. The Mission’s regional approach to development projects provides a cost-effective way to manage services and programs. It strengthens regional institutions and helps to engage regional and international partners. For more information, please contact hlipper@usaid.gov or visit the websites USAID and USAID/RDMA.

About Wego.com
Wego.com allows travellers to search for flights, hotels, packages, travel deals and travel research across more than 100 travel websites in the time it normally takes to search just one. Wego searches travel websites in real-time so the latest pricing and availability are shown. Travellers are then linked through to partner websites to book their travel. Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels Group (NYSE: IHG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and ZUJI. News Digital Media, the Australian digital arm of News Limited and part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), is an investor. For more information, visit http://www.wego.com/about.

Further information
Ikhwan Al-Rashid Abdul Rahman
ASEANTA Marketing Director
Tel: (60) 32692 6850
FAX: (60) 32694 2179
Email: ikhwan@aseanta.org / ikhwanalrashid@yahoo.com
Mobile: (+60) 12 245 30

Press queries
Ken Scott
ScottAsia Communications
Tel: (+66) 81 931 2753
E-mail: ken@scottasia.net