The villas stretch out either side of the reception area, gourmet restaurant, and river water swimming pool, and are surrounded by mangroves, palm trees and dense forest. Inside the 45sqm tented accommodation guests are treated to traditional decoration enhanced by the scent of freshly cut local flowers. After returning from a jungle trek or boat trip to nearby waterfalls, guests can relax in the four poster bed whilst watching DVDs on the flat screen TV, or enjoying the in-room WiFi. Otherwise they can step outside onto their private floating terrace and pass the time gazing out over the river into the rain forest beyond and listening out for the calls of wild animals and birds.

The resort is attempting to keep its carbon footprint as small as possible and has made use of many environmentally friendly non-forest products in its construction. It makes use of solar power yet has a back-up generator powered by bio-fuel, and the resort comprises a sophisticated waste management system. In addition local people have been hired and trained to work at the resort. "This is a fabulous and much needed addition in helping develop ecotourism in Cambodia" said Mark Ellison, Managing Director of Asia Adventures, a Cambodian tour operator that specializes in responsible and adventure travel in the country. "Until now, those wanting to delve deeper into Cambodia and discover its natural beauty had no choice but to stay in very basic accommodation. 4 Rivers goes to show that eco-tourism and luxury can go hand in hand and benefit the natural environment and the local people".

For more information on the 4 Rivers Floating Ecolodge visit: www.ecolodges.asia or www.asia-adventures.com.

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Two New Mekong Bridges to Link Thailand and Lao PDR

Two more bridges linking Thailand and Lao PDR over the Mekong River are in the pipeline. When completed, they will raise the total number of bridges between the two countries to four. As both bridges are international border checkpoints, they are playing a major role in promoting cross-border travel and trade. Over time, they will facilitate significant movements by overland visitors throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion countries.

The Third Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge
The 630 meter long and 16.7 meter wide bridge will link Nakhon Phanom province in Thailand with Thakhek, Khammouane in Lao PDR. The foundation stone was laid on 6 March, 2009, and construction is expected to take around 30 months. The project starts from Highway No. 212 in Thailand and connects to Road Number 13 in Lao PDR, a total of 5.2 km in length.

The Fourth Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge
The 480 m bridge will link Huayxai district in Lao PDR's Bokeo province to Chiang Khong in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai province. This bridge will be connected to a section of the Asian Highway that links Lao PDR, China, and Thailand. Construction work will commence in March 2010 and be finished within 30 months. The Chinese and Thai governments have jointly invested around US$ 50 million on a 50/50 basis, and it is in the form of cooperative shares

The bridge is part of the Greater Mekong Subregion's North-South Economic Corridor project, linking Chiang Rai province to Kunming, capital of south-west China's Yunnan province via Highway Number 3 in Lao PDR. In 2009, Lao visitor arrivals to Thailand totaled 639,692 up 2.92 per cent over 2008.

Source: TATNEWS.org

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Myanmar Holds Miss Tourism Contest for 2010

Myanmar oraganised a Miss Tourism contest for the first time in Yangon this month, in a bid to promote the country's tourism industry, sources with the Hoteliers Association said. Sponsored by the association, the Miss Tourism contest for 2010 was launched on Feb. 12 at the famous Inya Lake Hotel to crown a tourism diplomat for the Myanmar association. The competition was attached with a fun fair involving private travel and tour companies, the sources said.

Winners were to be awarded with 1 million Kyats (1,000 U.S. dollars) for Miss Tourism, 500,000 Kyats for first runner up, 300, 000 Kyats for second runner up, 200,000 Kyats each for Miss Best Costume and Miss Photogenic, the sources added.

Hoteliers in Myanmar are making efforts to make more investment in the hotels and tourism sector this year in the light of revival of the sector after declination of tourist arrivals in the previous years. Despite drop in 2007 and 2008, the number of tourist arrivals rose apparently in 2009, the hoteliers said. Yangon received a high number of over 7,000 foreign tourists monthly in some of the months last year.

According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the number of tourists arrivals in Myanmar through the Yangon International Airport increased by over 20,000 in the first half (April- September) of the fiscal year 2009-10, registering 111,044 as compared with the same period of 2008-09's 83,047.

Travelers mostly came from Asian countries, North America and East European countries. The tourist arrivals once fell in 2008 especially in the months after deadly cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in early May of the year. Myanmar targets to get 1 million foreign tourists in the present 2009-10.

Source: Xinhua

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Vietnam Air to Launch Direct Flights to Yangon

Vietnam Airlines will begin offering four direct flights a week between Hanoi and Yangon from March 2. The airline will offer a one-way promotional fare of US$250 from Hanoi to Yangon from March 2 to 31. Mr Minh could not say what the regular airfare would be when flights begin but the airline is planning to establish a ticket office at Sakura Tower in Yangon.

Mr Minh said the direct air link was important for future tourism cooperation between the two countries. Recently, they reached an agreement to establish Bagan and Hue as sister cities.

Statistics from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism show 1864 Vietnamese tourists visited Myanmar in 2009, up from 1084 in 2008.

Vietnam Airlines was officially established as the country's national carrier in April 1993. It started with non-regular services between two domestic destinations and the airlines' network now includes 20 domestic and 40 international destinations.

Source: Myanmar Times

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Scenario for Grand Ceremony of Hanoi Millennium Anniversary

A plan for a grand ceremony on the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi that has been submitted to the Government for approval will be one of the most glorious cultural and historical programs in Vietnam's history.

The event, which will take place from Oct. 1-10, will include 30 cultural activities and festivals that aim to honor the country's historical and revolutionary values, said the plan's author Nguyen Khac Phuc.

During the event, Hanoians and people across the country will be entertained with a music and symphony program, a traditional dress (ao dai) show, a street festival, kite flying and a physical exercise performance given by 1,000 old people.

The ceremony will include the debut of a book collection entitled "Thang Long-Hanoi – 1,000 years of culture", the inauguration of the Hanoi Museum and Uncle Ho statue and a awards ceremony for the international contest "Thang Long-Hanoi - your rendezvous".

Following the opening ceremony of the event on Oct. 1 will be a play called "Thang Long-Hanoi - Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh era".

The play tells the story of the nation's development since the August Revolution in 1945 with the participation of tens of thousands of people and the image of Uncle Ho reading the Declaration of Independence in Ba Dinh Square.

Other events, including the Government's takeover of the city in Oct. 10, 1954, Hanoi's downing of US B52 planes, a Politburo meeting to initiate a massive offensive in 1975 and Hanoi's construction and development process will be vividly manifested in the play.

Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism

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China, Vietnam to Set Up New Trade Zone

South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Vietnam have approved a framework agreement to establish a new cross-border economic zone in the latest effort to further boost economic and trade cooperation between China and its Southeast Asian neighbor.

It is part of broad efforts to further enhance bilateral economic ties between China, the world's third-largest economy - one of the fastest-growing economies in the world - and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) following the establishment of the China-ASEAN free trade area (FTA) earlier this year.

The framework plan for the new cross-border economic zone between Dongxing, a city administered by Fangchenggang, a port city in Guangxi, and Mong Cai city, the largest border trade zone in northern Vietnam, was approved by the Guangxi regional government.

Dongxing, the only Chinese city with both land and sea borders with ASEAN, has a total area of 540.7 square kilometers and a population of 110,000. Mong Cai, a key Vietnamese city open to the outside world with preferential government policies, has a total area of about 520 square kilometers and a population of about 100,000.

In 2009, nearly 4.9 million people crossed the Dongxing border, rising from about 4.6 million in 2008, according to the mayor of Dongxing.

The volume of trade between China and Vietnam through the Dongxing-Mong Cai border reached $2.4 billion and $4.1 billion in 2007 and 2008 respectively, the highest among the China-Vietnam border gates.

Source: China Daily

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NEWS IN BRIEF
Thailand

The new Travel Green Thailand guide book was just released. The guide edited by Richard Werly and Simon Bowring was a project sponsored by The Royal Thai Embassy Brussels will soon be distributed widely by Asiabooks.

Travel Green Thailand is as much a guidebook as an introduction to the challenges met by Green tourism operators , green minded visitors and environment activists in the Kingdom.

In 154 pages, widely illustrated and divided per the country's regions, the book aims to be a pionneer in the field of sustainable tourism, and a benchmark on what is being done, what shall be avoided and what can be done from home stays to environmental friendly diving spots.

Laos
The Xe Pian National Protected Area has been nominated for Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award. For more information visit:
http://planeta.wikispaces.com/itbw
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T6LGNYJ
http://www.xepian.org/main/

In January 2008 the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) launched the "Project for Prototype of Attractive Tourism Center in the East West Economic Corridor for Community Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation (EWEC Tourism Promotion Project)". The project is being carried out in cooperation with Lao National Tourism Administration (LNTA). Information and activities can be found on their website and a quarterly newsletter with updates on the project's progress and its impacts can be viewed at http://ewectourism.net78.net.

A survey was conducted and showed the number of tourist arrivals in Savannakhet having significantly increased since the completion of the Second Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River in December 2006, and the improved road linkages with Vietnam and Thailand. The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Savannakhet Province in 2007 reached 430,000, a 123% of increase compared to the previous year. Currently, most of the tourists are from neighboring countries like Thailand and Vietnam who visit Savannakhet for business or transit. As for international tourists coming from Europe, America or other parts of Asia and Pacific, most visit Savannakhet for transit purposes.

Myanmar
Yangon's Inya Lake Hotel has launched a new website with updated events listings for the city. This site features a calendar of events from music concerts and art gallery openings to social occasions in the hotels and bars around the city. For more information contact Mr Frank Janmaat on (+951) 662 866 or email: frank@inyalakehotel.com.

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Tap New Markets at www.ExploreMekong.org  MTCO's consumer-facing website www.exploremekong.org will be a key platform for marketing the Mekong region as a premier tourism destination.       Through www.exploremekong.org the MTCO offers Mekong-region tourism stakeholders a valuable opportunity to dabble in online distribution for the first time, or expand upon their existing web-based channels.       Minimum conditions apply for private-sector inclusion in the website's booking engine. Sponsorship and advertising opportunities are also available.       For more information on the marketing opportunities offered by www.exploremekong.org, please email exploremekong@genaresasia.com.     Learn, Share, Engage at www.MekongTourism.org  The MTCO's website at www.mekongtourism.org is quickly developing into an indispensable resource for anyone interested in tourism development: development partners, NGOs, students, teachers, policy makers, and the travel trade.       Bookmark www.mekongtourism.org for convenient access to the proceedings of MTCO's GMS workshops and other resources pertaining to sustainable tourism development, especially the MTCO's priority themes of conservation, poverty alleviation, human resource development, and tourism corridor enhancement.       To contribute your own tourism development news, opinions, and resources to www.mekongtourism.org, please email content@mekongtourism.org.   Go Social with Mekong Tourism Help MTCO tap into and expand its social media networks: Follow "Explore Mekong" on Twitter, join our "Mekong Tourism" groups on Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo, and help us represent the GMS on The "Good Tourism" Wiki! TOP