Since a teenager, Art Thomya, YouTube host and travel vlogger, has enthusiastically participated in Asean cultural exchange programmes.
His passion for the region rings true until today. The 39-year-old, who wears a number of hats, uses his talent as an independent singer/songwriter and travel enthusiast to promote the Asean region's tourism and culture on his YouTube travel programme Hey! Asean, which debuted in June.
Art explains how it all fell in place. "I have been representing Thailand at Asean cultural exchange events and music performances since my late teens," remarked the song writer of TAT's theme song Miracle Thailand.
"Some of my most memorable moments were participating in the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Programme, where we got to sail to different neighbouring nations and experience their culture closely. This programme has been around for over four decades.
"After working for Google (Thailand) for three-and-a-half years as a business development officer, I realised that it was time to use all my life experiences to pursue my goal of promoting Asean to the world, through the most accessible social channel YouTube. To reach a global audience I decided to offer English content. The programme titled: Hey! Asean will focus on promoting tourism and local culture from the viewpoint of the locals who reside within communities in Thailand and neighbouring countries. We will focus on seven must eat, do, see places in each country.
His programme will also help to highlight and educate viewers on the similarities, differences and common ground each country shares.
"The contents of Hey! Asean are carefully selected to reflect the communities distinct lifestyle. What we showcase will be suitable for international travellers who are searching for information online to plan their own sojourns. The English content will be auto-translated with YouTube technology to 50 languages to offer a global appeal," said the multifaceted Thai, who has performed at music festivals in Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines.
"Having Bangkok Airways as our main sponsor has helped us improve on the quality of the footage, because for one, we now have a camera team who accompany me throughout the trip. We have started filming in Thailand and Laos. After that I hope to visit Cambodia soon."
Most nitty-gritty travel details in a country are mostly written in the local language for local consumption, he said, providing another reason to have such a programme, addressing the lack of proper local information on travel and culture in English.
Coming up with a catchy name for this endeavour was time consuming, admits Art, because, for one, he wanted it to appeal to the masses. With about 40 possible names to chose from, he opted for Hey! Asean because it had a warm, friendly vibe to it.
Art calls himself the "Asean Crooning Traveller", and for good reason. At every given opportunity, he enjoys singing for an audience wherever he happens to be. Being part of the cultural exchange programme and music scene for decades has widened his circle of acquaintances. In Laos, Art made such an impression with locals, that one friend assisted him in co-hosting the segment titled "7 Must-Go Places in Vientiane". Moreover, he also got invited to perform at Khop Chai Deu, a famous meetup place for the public in Vientiane.
He also had the opportunity to travel by ship to all top cities in Asean, namely Manila, Yangon, Ho Chi Minh, Kota Kinabalu, Bandar Seri Begawan, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Asked to gauge the public's understanding of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) or for that matter Asean, he said: "From my experience, I found that people seem to have heard of the AEC more than Asean. I was surprised that despite the fact that Asean has been promoted for a much longer time than AEC, there were still a significant number of people who confused Asean with Asian. They also don't realise that Asean is an abbreviated form of Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"Secondly, I found that Thais more often than not organise local events with only Thais in mind. A photo exhibition is one such event. They might have foreign organisers, but the exhibits are largely by locals. In a show of solidarity, I believe it is high time we include nationalities represented in Asean in our public events
"The eighth of August is observed as Asean Day. I believe for the Asean region to truly be one, we need more collaboration between Thailand and neighbouring countries. We need to share more information online. We need a social media platform to cater to people from the Asean countries.
"For example, when we search Asean on Facebook now, you will see communities created by local Thais, but the downside is that it is entirely in Thai language, so if you don't read Thai you will be left out. It is my desire to see Hey! Asean play a part in bridging the differences we find among our neighbouring countries. That is my hope and dream!''