Mekong Tourism Office tams up with Agoda to boost digital skills for local hotels
Grassroots accommodation providers in secondary destinations in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) are set to receive a helping hand getting their rooms filled, after Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) partnered with Agoda to develop online training to upscale their digital skills.
“There are a lot of hidden gems and secondary destinations in our region, and a lot of accommodation providers, like eco-lodges, guesthouses and home stays, that might not even have a presence online,” said Suvimol Thanasarakij, executive director of MTCO.
She added that currently, the vast majority of these MSME accommodation providers sell rooms manually. “They don’t know how to be online, how to sell their rooms on a digital platform, or how to run online promotions.”
The training course, set to run in the local languages of all six GMS countries and tentatively scheduled for rollout in the last quarter of 2025, will teach participants how to strengthen their online presence and boost sales through the use of OTAs such as Agoda.
“We will develop the curriculum together with Agoda and in consultation with the member countries to see exactly which gaps need filling,” Thanasarakij told TTG Asia at the Mekong Tourism Forum, which took place in Luang Prabang, Laos, from June 24 to 27.
“I was looking at which areas are lacking, and wanted to focus on supporting secondary destinations in the region. I looked at what is missing, and it’s really digital skills to promote and sell. Agoda is the largest OTA in Asia-Pacific, so we will together introduce this training for the first time.”