TAT Invests Bt3Mil To Launch Tourism Promotion Apps For Smartphone

[webfact]

TAT invests THB3mil to launch tourism promotion apps for smartphone

BANGKOK, 5 July 2012 (NNT) – The Thai tourism authority has decided to make sizable financial investment in developing a new application for smartphone, which is intended to help promote the country’s travel industry.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Deputy Governor Juthaporn Rerngronasa said that, under the 2013 marketing plan and the ambitious goal to boost tourism revenue to 2 trillion baht by 2015, the TAT is determined to find new markets with high potential and introduce new promotion campaigns to reach target travelers.

The TAT also plans to negotiate with overseas travel agencies to fly charter flights from many Russian cities without direct flight to Thailand, in order to bring in more holidaymakers from the country.

Ms. Juthaporn added that the latest gimmick, which the TAT has invested 3 million baht to develop, is the Lifestyle Thailand smartphone application, which is available both in Thai and English.

She said that the new app is intended to reach out to lifestyle travelers and meet new-generation travelers’ demand for new holiday experiences.

With the TAT’s latest app, more than 300 choices of well-selected brands, which range from hotels to restaurants and holiday destinations, along with special discounts of 20-50 percent, are up for holiday-makers’ grabs.

The Lifestyle Thailand app is ready for download from App Store, Android Market and www.lifestylethailand.tourismthailand.org

-- NNT 2012-07-05

[bobl]

They can announce that they paid somebody $100,000 to develop an app, and keep a straight face?? Miracle Thailand...

[Malcolmjury]

$100,000 us for the app and throughput the app Accommodation is slept Accommodations. I wonder if a native speaker was involved in the grammar check. I doubt it though!

[Malcolmjury]

Haha stupid iPhone slept should bs spelt! Thank you auto-correct!

[Katipo]

Looking at the reviews in Google Play it appears to be quite well put together. My initial use of it supports this. It's very nicely done. My only gripe would be that almost all the content I have seen so far is aimed at the high end of the market, especially the accommodation.

[LaurentPerche]

Looking at the reviews in Google Play it appears to be quite well put together. My initial use of it supports this. It's very nicely done. My only gripe would be that almost all the content I have seen so far is aimed at the high end of the market, especially the accommodation.

Well well... I find it funny that all 56 reviews with a 5 star rating where all posted on May 22 & 26.

[vijer]

$100,000 is a shit load of cash to pay for a simple iPhone app. Especially when you can assume it was written by Thai programmers. Oh wait, that makes sense, $10,000 for programmers, $90,000 for Tea Money. Clear as a bell now.

Somebody commented that the app targeted the high end of the market, I suspect there is a common interface for hotels to publish their rates and availability and the smaller hotels may not wish to pony up to access the database.

OK I just installed this piece of crap on my iPhone and it is a joke. The app is broken down into eight stupid categories, Chic (what the f is that), Wellness(ahh the spa life), Thainess (huh?!?), Romantic(I wouldn't bring a non Thai woman here for romance), Easy n' Slow (geriatric crowd), Breezy (when you are not feeling Chic), Adventurous(can't really picture it, white water rafting, no, mountain climbing, no, bungy jumping, no, some kayaking, some scuba diving) and Family(really I wouldn't bring a family here either). Click on one of those and you get five groups, Restaurants, Accommodations, Things to Do(bar girls), Night Life(bar girls) and Exclusive Service (bar girls). Click on one of those and you get a list. No searching. No filtering by area. No filtering by price. No filtering by quality. Nope just predefined choices. Ya its a 5 star app alright! If you're brain dead. This piece of crap doesn't even give you a description for most things, just a picture and a name (for the ADVERTISER) and a link to the (ADVERTISERS) website. Any computer stuff written or maintained by Thai's is going to be basically rubbish, nice people but they don't know shit about programming.