Sunday, March 20, 2011

INNOVATIVE THAIS

It is said that necessity is the mother of innovation. The Thais are very good at this. Therefore the first ASEAN e-Travel Mart, will be held in Bangkok from March 23 to 25. It has attracted more than 500 buyers, including big names from the online travel market. This is almost double its initial target of 300 buyers.

Organiser Tourism Technology Association (TTA) president, Apichai Sakulsureeyadej, said that over 300 buyers were tourism players from Thailand while the rest were from other ASEAN countries. They will be trading with some 40 sellers comprising mainly tourism-related software and technology providers and regional hotel chains.

He noted that even in its inaugural year, the event had drawn major online travel players, such as Agoda, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Google, AirAsia, Wego, Web Sawadee and Asian Trails. Some are participating as both buyer and seller and/or speaker.

Registration will be on March 23. There will be a B2B show on March 24 and 25, when buyers and sellers will trade and discuss issues concerning online tourism business.

Apichai said TTA expected the event to result in a trading value of 300 to 400 million baht (US$9.8 to 13.1 million) and the purchasing of tourism software and technology of between 60 and 80 million baht.

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