Ministries to establish ‘info gateway’ for foreign visitors
THE MINISTRIES of Information and Communications Technology and Tourism and Sports will jointly develop a “Thailand tourism gateway” to provide comprehensive information to tourists to help bring in more revenue from foreign travellers.
The gateway will consist of many platforms including websites and applications. Yesterday the two ministries met for the first time and announced that the first phase would be launched by the end of this year. Meeting at the ICT Ministry, they agreed to set up a committee for the project and to meet again on February 10 at the Tourism and Sports Ministry.
According to the plan, the first phase will be a platform that will provide information on popular tourist sites, including hotel accommodation, transport networks and activities.
Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrankul said the first phase would cover eight major tourist destinations including Phuket, Pattaya and Hua Hin and another 12 “do not miss cities” such as Lampang, Chanthaburi and Trat.
“Our objective is to provide more info for tourists [so that they will] spend more time and money in Thailand. Currently, one tourist spends Bt5,000 per day and 9.5 days per trip” on average, she said.
After the first phase, the two ministries will expand the project to cover more cities and provinces next year.
ICT Minister Uttama Savananyana said his ministry would support the plan in such ways as e-commerce platform reservations, free Wi-Fi for tourist sites and a “smart city” project in Phuket.
The Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) is developing an e-commerce platform for small and medium-sized enterprises in the tourist industry and using digital content to portray Thailand as a quality leisure destination.
The ICT Ministry will link all the info to all platforms for the services.
