Small-Budget Website Branded “Gold-Class”
This story proves that one doesn’t need a trillion dollars to mix it online with the big boys in your industry!
The ‘Responsible Tourism Guide to the Mekong’ at ExploreMekong.org/responsible has won the 2009 Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award in the website category. And it cost little more than US$1,000 to design and build.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project developed the site as part of its technical assistance to ASEAN- and Mekong-region tourism cooperation and integration.
ACE Project Director RJ Gurley said: “We wished to demonstrate that with sound advice and the right mix of user-friendly open-source technologies, small tourism operators can achieve competitive web standards with relatively low budgets.”
OPEN Advertising designed and built the site.
“This Award sends a message of support, encouragement, and inspiration to responsible tourism operators in the Mekong,” said Mekong Tourism Executive Director Mason Florence. “They now have an opportunity to be featured in a website that has been branded “Gold-class” by industry peers.”
The ‘Responsible Tourism Guide to the Mekong’ website is based on a responsible tourism guidebook published by the Mekong Tourism Development Project in 2008.
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