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The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) introduces “Amazing Thailand” a mobile application for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and popular devices such as iPad and iPod Touch. This emphasizes the success of promoting tourism through online marketing to raise the organisation’s profile in the digital world at the same time revealing its digital marketing strategy in the year 2011.
Mr. Suraphon Svetasreni, the governor of TAT said “We introduced the ‘Amazing Thailand’ mobile application because they succeed in promoting tourism through the online market to catch up to the digital world by using digital marketing and social media marketing.” At the present, “Amazing Thailand” has more than 120,000 fans on its Facebook fan page which is ranked number one for the tourism promotion page in Asia and Twitter @ThailandFanClub for tourists and @Go2Thailand for Thai travellers.
Mr. Suraphon remarked that TAT has developed the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and popular devices such as iPad and iPod Touch which is a way to increase a channel to promote Thailand’s tourism to more than 300 million potential target users worldwide. Moreover, this can make the most of the information in the TAT website, increase fans and followers in social media and support new marketing campaigns through TAT mobile applications in the future.
There are three highlights of the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application:
- Various contents – there are more than 10,000 contents about tourism in Thailand mainly on the ‘Destination’ and ‘Events’ menus. The destination menu highlights top10 destinations and shows another 89 destinations throughout Thailand. Each destination guide consists of how to get there, where to go, where to stay, where to eat and shopping. The events section gives information about events and festivals in Thailand, ordered by month.
- Location-based Service – searching for the destination by using GPS technology in the smart phone which tourists can search for nearby tourist attractions and the search results can be displayed on Google Maps for mobile. Moreover there is a ‘Search’ menu for tourists to search by using a keyword.
- User Experience – tourists can share their travel experiences on mobile phones via social networks i.e Facebook and Twitter or by e-mail.
There is speculation that business travelers will be the first to use this application through smart phones and leisure travelers will increase in the future.
For the future development of “Amazing Thailand” mobile application, the application will be available for every platform and popular devices. TAT will focus on the ease of use, a variety of information to match with each group of users in important niche market in Thailand such as Weddings and Diving. Furthermore, features such as a review and rating, personal travel plan, flights schedules, hotel reservations, real time real location promotion and check in will be also developed in the near future.
All in all, these are important steps for TAT to raise the organisation’s profile in the digital world and respond to the needs of tourists nowadays whilst using technology to promote and support tourism in Thailand.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
