Published on August 5, 2021
Responsible tourism operators in Southeast Asia can now participate in the 3rd ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Awards (ASTA), a prestigious recognition supporting the implementation of ASEAN’s Tourism Strategic Plan 2016-2025. The award takes place every two years with a different team. For 2022-2023, the theme for the 3rd ASTA is “Safe Tourism.”
“Safe tourism” refers to trips made to destinations where all the precautions have been taken to provide visitors with the safest experience and it constitutes the main selling point.
Two sustainable tourism packages from each ASEAN Member State – twenty in total – will be chosen to win the ASTA. Of the two winners from each country, one will be “rural,” and the other will be “urban,” reaffirming that city operators can be as sustainable as rural ones.
Each winner will be highlighted on the respective NTO’s website. To raise their business exposure and international visibility, they will also receive exposure as a national best practice operator during press conferences and trade shows, such as ATF, TRAVEX, ITB, and WTM.
Additionally, winners will be invited on stage to receive recognition and a trophy during the sustainable tourism awards event during the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Cambodia on January 2022.
Mr. Khom Douangchantha, Director General of Tourism Marketing Department, Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism, envisioned that ASEAN tourism operators have to showcase the best tourism products to be featured in the ASEAN award platform launched. The tourism packages represent the importance of sustainable tourism practices in combating seasonality and rebalancing tourist flows into ASEAN countries.
“The diversity and quality of ASEAN’s sustainable tour packages are amazing for tourists to select according to their preferences. The aim of the awards is to prove and foster green tourism practitioners,” Mr. Khom stated.
Applicants can read the full rules and regulations and download the application forms and guidelines here or email asta.asean@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is October 30th, 2021, and ASTA’s Master Assessors will assess each application in the applicant’s country. Results will be announced in December, and the awarding ceremony will take place in January 2022 during ASEAN Tourism Forum in Cambodia.
For more information on past ASTAs, visit https://www.visitsoutheastasia.travel/ and check out our dedicated ASTA website at https://www.tourismlaos.org/.