Asia today, the world tomorrow

BANGKOK, 31 August 2012: The Tourism Technology Association says it will use its annual event now named Asia Pacific Digital Travel Forum to push Thailand as a global hub for technology in tourism.

On the sidelines of the forum, the TTA president, Apichai Sakulsureeyadej, said Thailand could become a global hub for information technology in tourism within the next three years.

“Thailand is capable in both technology and tourism, and if we combine these two industries we could become a hub at a worldwide level,” said Mr Apichai.

Around 400 travel executives attended the second edition of this annual event that marries tourism and technology. The inaugural event was linked to ASEAN in its name and this year it adopted the name Asia Pacific.

However, delegates admitted that tourism companies in Thailand had to play catch up and invest in technology on the scale that has been undertaken in Singapore and India.

Mr Apichai talked ambitiously about expanding the scale of the event beyond Thailand to really encompass the Asia Pacific tourism community and eventually the world.

“Thai tourism players need to realise the change in customer’s behavior and lifestyles and move  ideas to action. I believe that most  tourism players in Thailand are aware of the changing trends, but they are still slow to take the right steps. We have to accelerate the process,” he explained.

“Last year we used another name for the seminar so I am aware that there is a branding problem that might cause confusion which is another thing that I have to work on.”

The Asia Pacific Digital Travel Forum is a continuation event of the last year show held by TTA. It was called ASEAN e-Travel Mart in last year.

This year, the Asia Pacific Digital Travel Mart Forum attracted 400 participants, up from 350 participants last year. TTA has 400 members of which 70% to 80% are from the tourism industry while the rest are in the information technology industry.

Sourced: ttrweekly