ATF is a cooperative regional effort to promote the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region as one tourist destination. This annual event involves all the tourism industry sectors of the 10 member nations of ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Each year ATF is rotated among the member countries. ATF 2012 marked the 31st anniversary since its inauguration in Malaysia in 1981. Indonesia hosted ATF 2012 and I had the pleasure of meeting up with over 300 hoteliers who attended the event along with others from the tourism industry.
The event was dominated by hoteliers from Indonesia; and it was great to meet with them. Topics of conversation revolved around new hotel openings in the region, growth of online distribution as well as new technologies catering to it. The next edition will take place in Laos and we look forward to being there next year.
Michael Atienza is Sales Manager for APAC at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He can be reached at michaela@ratetiger.com