Tourism 101

Finally, the leaders of ASEAN tourism have come to their senses and admitted that their promotion of ASEAN as a tourism destination may have been in vain.  I am not suggesting that the hundreds of thousands of dollars and energy spent have been on the Visit ASEAN tourism promotion campaign has been  completely worthless, but perhaps misunderstood. [Read more →]

From my time as Senior Advisor of the Mekong Tourism Office, I recall an ongoing debate about the importance of logos vs. slogans.

I have always been of the opinion that the visual strength of a destination marketing logo is far more effective in creating a lasting impression on consumers.  Not only are visual images easier to remember, but they are much more able to conjure imagery and symbolism of a destination.  Not only that, but in the globally competitive and multi-cultural environment in which tourism destinations must operate today, visual messaging is probably far more universally understood. [Read more →]

It wasn’t so many years ago in any American or European grocery store you were given the choice between paper or plastic bags to haul your groceries home in. We’ve learned since that maybe the most sustainable way to shop is to bring your own ‘this is not a plastic bag’ canvas bag to tote your goodies home in. [Read more →]

Oh how time flies by and the best of intentions are left to fall to the wayside.  I started this blog in early 2008 and failed to keep it up: my last posting was eight months ago.  Among my many New Years resolutions is to do a better job of keep this blog going.  And as it turns out, with a little motivation, that may not be such a tall order. [Read more →]