Five Mekong cities form tourism network

BANGKOK, September 18 (TNA) Five cities in the lower Mekong River basin, including Bangkok, where there are outstanding cultural attractions, have agreed to form a tourism alliance to draw in international travelers as a single tourist destination. The agreement focuses on utilizing the cities' strengths in cultural diversity and covers a PR strategy on the joint development of an online application for smartphone users to provide information on tourist sites of the five cities in order to reach more global tourists, especially those in such major markets as Japan and Europe. The cooperation also includes the development and designs of souvenirs and other products of the five cities to add more values to them, paving the way for the creation of their symbolic allied souvenirs for international visitors in the future. Apart from the Thai capital, the four other allied cities in the lower Mekong River basin establishing the tourism network include Vientiane, Laos' capital; Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital; Yangon, Myanmar's former capital; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city. (TNA)