Bangkok, 26 February 2019 – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and GrabTaxi (Thailand) Co. Ltd.  have announced a strategic collaboration to build a smart data system as part of the ‘Tourism Smart Data, The Time Is Now’ project. The agreement is in line with the government’s Thailand 4.0 policy of utilizing technology to integrate information from both the government and the private sector to help move Thailand forward. The collaboration also includes co-creation of innovations to enhance local transportation and tourism as well as providing the better livelihoods and increasing sustainable income for local communities.

Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said: “TAT realizes the benefits of utilizing digital technology to develop a smart data system that can better support the tourism marketing and serving the needs of tourists. Therefore, we have initiated the project ‘Tourism Smart Data, The Time is Now’ and now partners with GrabTaxi (Thailand), the leading technology company to join forces in driving Thailand’s tourism industry. With insights from GrabTaxi (Thailand), we can develop a smart data system for tourism, which will support our strategies and marketing plans to drive the Thailand tourism industry forward effectively and embrace today’s world of technology. Our main goals are to attract the current group of tourists to revisit Thailand, expand the new tourist targets, distribute tourism income to emerging destinations to stimulate the market even further.”

Tarin Thaniyavarn, Country Head of GrabTaxi (Thailand) Co. Ltd said, “TAT and GrabTaxi (Thailand) have a mutual goal of leveraging Thailand’s tourism industry and providing the better livelihoods and sustainable income for local communities. This MOU is another strategic move in the continued collaboration between TAT and GrabTaxi (Thailand), following the previous partnership in several campaigns including ‘Grab Xi’ in the end of 2018 as well as the 39th Thailand Tourism Festival 2019 earlier this year, which were well responded by both Thai and international tourists.”

Under the agreement, GrabTaxi (Thailand) will collaborate with TAT to drive the country forward following the government’s Thailand 4.0 policy. Its aim is to analyze the large amount of aggregate data available and provide  insights  to support the country’s development.

GrabTaxi (Thailand) will help TAT better understand the behavior and lifestyle of both Thai and international tourists. GrabTaxi (Thailand) will also support the project with Grab Data Scientists who will be working closely with TAT to derive these insights.

Yuthasak concluded that the partnership between TAT and GrabTaxi (Thailand) will devise tourism development plan as well as define the best approaches for using these insights to benefit all stakeholders in the Thai tourism industry in every possible dimension. The plan includes building of a smart data system for tourism, creating innovations for transportation and launching campaigns to promote local tourism nationwide. Each element will support distribution of tourists and income to the local communities. This collaboration is a landmark public-private partnership to utilize data technology for sustainable development of country and tourism.