BAGAN has been selected to host the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Working Group Meeting in November, when Myanmar plans to hold its first regional travel show and conference.

Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) executive director, Mason Florence, said they were expecting some 60 foreign delegates from the six GMS nations – Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – as well as travel trade partners and local industry members during the one-day meeting.

The Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is also planning to hold a concurrent travel show that will feature at least 150 booths, as well as a symposium on community-based tourism.

The event follows the nation’s first local Travel Mart and Food Show that ran from June 28 to July 13 in Nay Pyi Taw. (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 27).

Florence said: “The regional travel show and symposium will bring Myanmar into the limelight, but towards a more responsible and sustainable tourism direction…a forward (way of) thinking, as Myanmar’s limited tourism supply and infrastructure cannot handle a mass tourism model.”

Myanmar has also been selected to host the Mekong Tourism Forum in 2014, and is in the rotation to host the ASEAN Tourism Forum in 2015.