Southeast Asia Launches “Feel the Warmth” Brand Campaign

Ten Southeast Asian countries launched a new tourism campaign built around the slogan, “Southeast Asia: feel the warmth.” A dynamic, new, interactive website, http://www.southeastasia.org/, is being created as the primary marketing tool.

The new campaign, officially supported by the 10 ASEAN tourism ministers at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Brunei, will immediately target tourists in medium- and long-haul markets such as the U.K., Australia, India, North America and Hong Kong.

“Southeast Asia: feel the warmth” and SoutheastAsia.org will emphasize the warmth of Southeast Asia’s hospitality and climate and the diversity of the region’s cultural attractions and tourism activities. The 10 participating countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In January 2009, ACE and ASEANTA signed an agreement to work together on a new branding and marketing campaign that would encourage travelers to visit multiple Southeast Asian destinations, stay longer, and spend more money in the region. Since then, ACE has created alliances and agreements across the public and private sectors to build the campaign.

The initial phase of the SoutheastAsia.org launch is centered on a contest to populate SoutheastAsia.org with user-generated text, images, videos and articles. The user-generated content will supplement professionally sourced content from Lonely Planet, ASEAN’s national tourism organizations, professional travel writers and other contributors.