Technology seen as the key to becoming Asean tourism hub
Thai companies should grasp the opportunity to set up one-stop services for regional travel to promote the country as a tourism hub before the full opening of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, a technology expert says.
They will have to expand their role beyond the Kingdom, while keeping Thailand as their key base. By doing so, the travel packages they design will be kicked off here and then expand to other destinations in the AEC.
They should also strengthen their networks, especially by forming partnerships outside Thailand or by investing on their own in each nation to create regional connectivity, said Apichai Sakulsureeyadej, president of the Tourism Technology Association (TTA).
It is not essential for Thailand to construct man-made projects to attract foreign tourists. In fact, it can sell itself as a destination for Thainess, highlighting its food, culture and so on. It also has the advantage of offering good value for money.
"There is no need to copy the construction concept of other nations, like Disneyland in Hong Kong or Universal Studios in Singapore," he said.
Despite facing tough competition, especially from newly opening nations like Myanmar, Apichai believes that Thailand will not lose its regional leadership. What the business sector should do is explore new opportunities in the region by partnering with people in other countries while also creating travel destinations to connect with the homeland.
If it does not do these things, Thailand will lose business to rivals, not just Asean companies but also international outfits looking to capitalise on the regional tourism boom. Still, Thailand has the advantages of being geographically situated as a gateway and having good infrastructure.
Tourism-related online business should be in focus. Today, it is dominated by foreign companies such as Agoda.com and TripAdvisor.com. Their sales revenue is sent back to their own nations.
Apichai said Thailand had the competency to cash in on this sector, especially having professional local software programmers. However, the government still lacks a clear vision on encouraging this business to emerge and persuading foreign interests to invest so that Thais can acquire know-how and management skills.
It is clear that the trend driving the global tourism industry is technology. Online tourism services will be used as a platform to strengthen Thailand as the regional hub. Commercially, operators can design local travel packages and sell them by connecting with the AEC market.
Apichai said online bookings made up 50-60 per cent of the total. It also found 75 per cent of travellers have searched for information on the Internet. ??is this local or worldwide??To strengthen Thailand as the tourism hub, Apichai said the TTA had put a lot of effort into creating platforms to promote sustainability driven by technology.
On Thursday, it will host the Asia Pacific Digital Travel Forum, aimed at providing knowledge on technology to the industry.
