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From left: Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s Randy Durban, Asian Development Bank’s Jong Woo Kang, Malaysia Budget & Business Hotel Association’s Sri Ganesh Michiel, and Batu Batu’s Cher Chua-Lassalvy
The annual
ASEAN Tourism Conference (ATC), to be held later this month in conjunction with
the ASEAN Tourism Forum and ASEAN Travel Exchange (TRAVEX) in Johor, Malaysia,
has lined up several influential travel and tourism industry leaders who will
lead discussions on issues core to the business today and tomorrow. Sessions
will focus on sustainability, the role of online travel agencies, video
platforms, cross-regional tourism exchanges, AI, and more.
ATC 2025
will open on January 15 with the session, Charting Tourism for ASEAN: Trends
Defining the Next Decade. It will be presented by Randy Durban, CEO, Global
Sustainable Tourism Council.
This will
be followed by Sustainability Pioneers: Malaysian SMEs Driving Change, with
speakers Justine Vaz, executive director, The Habitat Foundation; Cher
Chua-Lassalvy, co-founder and managing director, Batu Batu; and Wong Siew Te,
CEO and founder, Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.
Other
prolific speakers and moderators include Jong Woo Kang, director for regional
cooperation and integration, economic research and development impact
department, Asian Development Bank; Sri Ganesh Michiel, national president,
Malaysia Budget & Business Hotel Association; Amelia Peng I-Mei, head of
brand partnerships Malaysia, TikTok; and Kingston Khoo, president, Eco-STEPS.
Commenting
on ATC’s line-up, Eddy Krismeidi Soemawilaga, president of the ASEAN Tourism
Association, more commonly known as ASEANTA, said: “After much thought, we’ve
focused on topics that we believe are the most relevant to the ASEAN tourism
industry – not only right now, in 2025, but also for the next decade.
Technology and sustainability are going to be the two forces dominating the
shape of the industry.”
He also
told TTG Asia: “We’ve doubled down on those two topics in
particular for ATC 2025, ensuring that there is not only a high-level
discussion on them with inspirational content, but also practical workshops,
with a session focusing on AI, as well as actionable steps to embark on
sustainability – all the while, with a view to how SMEs, who are the backbone
of our industry, can apply these.
“We hope
that when the audience goes home, they are inspired to start taking steps on
their sustainability journey, as well as feel more confident in trying out new
techniques that they can use to harness the power of technologies.”
ATC 2025
will stretch across January 15 and 16, and will be held at Persada Johor
International Convention Centre.
Programming
for this year’s ATC is coordinated by Hannah Pearson, director of Pear
Anderson, a research and sales representation tourism consultancy.
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