Thailand’s official travel super app, TAGTHAi has teamed up with Google Cloud to simplify and enhance the travel planning experience for visitors to Thailand with the help of Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) innovations.
TAGTHAi’s Design My Trip is a generative AI (gen AI)-powered capability accessible through the TAGTHAi mobile app, which utilises Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s enterprise AI platform, and Google’s first-party foundation models like Gemini, and enables travellers to create personalised trip itineraries within seconds.
The early-access version of Design My Trip, released earlier in June, helps travellers create tailored one-to-three-day itineraries for visits to the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. Users simply select their specific interests, such as ‘massage and spa’, ‘Michelin food’, or ‘Skywalk’, and the AI-powered tool instantly generates a customised trip plan. Integrating with Google Maps APIs, the tool also prioritises convenience by considering distances between recommended locations to minimise travel time while providing easy access to directions, reviews, and other useful information.
The full-featured version of Design My Trip, slated for release later this year, will offer expanded capabilities, allowing users to generate itineraries for longer trips and cover more points of interest and Thai provinces, such as Chiang Mai and Phuket. It will also allow users to further customise their AI-generated itineraries and share them with others for easier group travel planning. The itineraries will also offer the option of directly purchasing and storing e-tickets to attractions and activities within the TAGTHAi app.
Design My Trip is currently available in English and Thai, with plans to generate travel itineraries and other content in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other languages, to cater to a broader range of overseas visitors.
Thiratida Kuvantharai, CEO, Thai Digital Platform Social Enterprise Co. (TAGTHAi), shared: “We’re proactively addressing a major pain point faced by international visitors: navigating where to go in Thailand, and how, due to the overwhelming complexity associated with finding reliable in-destination-related information that’s scattered across numerous online platforms. We’ve developed Design My Trip to distil these complexities into personalised trip plans that guide travellers every step of the way, reducing travel anxiety and ensuring that they can easily discover and enjoy the rich tapestry of high-quality attractions and experiences that Thailand has to offer.”
“As Thailand looks to sustain its growth in international tourism, we look forward to continuing to help TAGTHAi and the broader travel ecosystem elevate their digital competitiveness and drive tangible business results with the industry’s most enterprise-ready gen AI platform,” said Annop Siritikul, country director, Thailand, Google Cloud.
In her interim position, DaSilva will oversee TTC Tour Brands’ portfolio of six brands, which includes Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, and Contiki.
She was most recently the vice president for the launch of K11 MUSEA in Hong Kong as a cultural destination, and prior to that, she had a nine-year tenure at New World Development.
A study by MMGY TCI Research has found that destinations hosting leisure and business events have been able to boost their presence in social conversations and drive positive engagement within communities.
In a PATA-led webinar last week on the topic of Event-driven Tourism: impact and opportunities, Olivier Henry-Biabaud, managing director and partner, MMGY TCI Research, shared that social conversations surrounding Asia-Pacific destinations doubled throughout the period of July 2023 to July 2024 when events tourism was taken into consideration.
In tracking Asia-Pacific events that triggered positive sentiments and engagement, the study named Yi Peng Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand; the Lunar New Year in several countries in the region; Bali Arts Festival in Indonesia; and Formula 1 races in Abu Dhabi and Singapore; among others as those that were most impactful.
The study also found that culture (45 per cent) topped the list of topics associated with events and festivals in the region, with tradition and folklore (30 per cent), arts and handicraft (29 per cent), and food/culinary (24 per cent) following on next.
Henry-Biabaud remarked that festivals and their topics could help raise awareness of a destination that might not be a primary tourism choice among travellers. Destination marketers should leverage niche festivals and events to speak to and connect with specific communities.
Further underscoring the value of festivals and events, Henry-Biabaud said such activities ranked second on a list of top-rated destination experiences. Outdoor and nature takes the lead with a 9.3 out of 10 visitor sentiment score; festivals and events was second with a score of nine. Street food, and museums and galleries ranked third and fourth respectively.
He emphasised that events and festivals could be a way to connect locals with the visitor community, and demonstrate a warm welcome to visitors, especially as tourism phobia grows in some parts of the world.
He added: “We tend to forget that big events are an amazing opportunity for visitors to blend with local people. Many of these events are usually made for locals in the first place, allowing them to share their passion with the world and meet other people from all over the world.”
Fellow webinar presenter, Benoit Badufle, managing director of Singapore-based Horus Development & Consulting, which is engaged to market destinations like Monaco and Brisbane in this region, further elaborated on the influential power of events and festivals.
Citing Monaco as an example, Badufle said the destination set out to attract the rich and famous by curating unique and prestigious events, many of which were first in the world or in Europe when launched. The Rose Ball, for one, debuted in Monaco in 1920 as one of the first global philanthropic events supported by the wealthy; it endures to this day.
Many of Monaco’s events are now a regular feature on the calendar. “They are very famous locally and internationally, and attract people from all around Europe and the world every year,” said Badufle. “They are a vector of soft power.”
He explained that events curated at the Grimaldi Forum congress centre are exported overseas, contributing to Monaco’s reputation as an intelligent destination. Famous artists performing in Monaco also help to bring positive attention to the country.
Citing yet another example of the power of association, Badufle said the annual Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur of the Year awards ceremony in Monaco has built an impression of the destination being “a stage for entrepreneurship”.
Badufle told TTG Asia that festivals and events are also a useful way to shift arrivals into the quieter travel seasons, and many in Monaco are scheduled during the shoulder and low season.
While festivals and events have the power to cast destinations in a positive light, Henry-Biabaud emphasised that destination marketers must also ensure that other supporting aspects, such as hotel accommodation, transport services, tours and attractions, are well managed to deliver an easy planning and travel experience for visitors.