Comprehensive up-to-date content to facilitate tourists and expats
To further boost domestic tourism and facilitate international visitors to Thailand, a new comprehensive digital and mobile App, “Destination Thailand”, was launched in September 2106 by an ASEAN-based technology consortium to provide the latest information on Thailand for both expats and international tourists, offering a wide range of video content and useful information on travel, lifestyle, Expat life, advice and the MICE market.
The App was jointly developed by Thai companies, Capital Television Group and Destination Thailand News Co., Ltd. together with Singapore-registered Talisman Telecom Group, one of Asia’s pioneers in mobile application development.
“We have developed a tailor-made app for travelers to Thailand and local expats who need more than just the usual tourism information” said Capital TV Director Raine Grady. “People want to know what’s new, what’s happening on the food and entertainment scenes, where they can take their children along with tips on art, culture, music and other interesting events that only a real insider can deliver on one complete App instead of having to visit numerous websites.”
While Capital TV has captured over 5,000 hours of video footage of destinations in Thailand and Asia since 1995, and produces one of the longest and most watched travel and lifestyle series in English with Thai subtitles, Destination Thailand, on Travel Channel (True 364)/Travel Planet (True 345) and YouTube, Destination Thailand News provides up-to-date news about tourism, travel, lifestyle, events and MICE on its website www.destinationthailandnews.com to more than 87,000 subscribers worldwide, resulting in almost 2 million monthly online views.
Mr. Stephen Morton, Founder and CEO of Destination Thailand News Co., Ltd. added, “Many start-up app companies have difficulty in securing relevant content, but fortunately for us, that is not the case! We are also very grateful for the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s support in encouraging all their overseas offices to help promote our App to prospective visitors to Thailand.”
The App’s technology partner, Talisman Telecom, has also ensured the latest communication tools are available on the App including chat, emergency calls, classified listings, instant alerts, advertising pop ups, etc. “The App is designed to deliver both live and VOD content in an engaging manner. Lacing in social media and gamification, the application provides many interesting ways to keep users engaged and several new options to intelligently monetize content,” commented Ananda Rao, CEO of Talisman Telecom Group.
In addition, “Destination Thailand” App provides finger-tip convenience for its users. Through strategic alliances with Asian Trails, Hotels Combined and Skyscanner, users can customize or reserve tours as well as book flights and hotels at the best possible prices via the App.
Another highlight of the App is the Galactio GPS navigation software. Developed by AAPICO ITS (AITS) Co., Ltd., this GPS software is regarded as one of the best of its kind, offering not only how to get to one’s desired destination, but also provides real-time traffic information, estimated time of arrival to any destination and major attractions along the route. The GPS software also has Chinese and Japanese language capabilities apart from English and Thai.
“We are delighted to join the Destination Thailand App as we feel it is the right platform that will help us penetrate into Thailand and, eventually, into ASEAN countries, especially since we have already developed a GPS software for Singapore and Indonesia,” said Yeap Swee Chuan, CEO of AITS.
Although initially in English, the “Destination Thailand” App has multi-language capability, and it plans to introduce Chinese on the App later next year. The App can be downloaded free on both Android (“Destination Thailand”) and iOS (“Destination Thai”) mobile systems.
