Thailand promotes tourism, e-commerce

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Expedia Group have signed an agreement on collaboration, aiming to reach a 20 percent growth in tourism income in secondary provinces by 2020.
Thailand promotes tourism, e-commerce ảnh 1A temple in Bangkok (Source: Xinhua)
Hanoi (VNA) - The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)and Expedia Group have signed an agreement on collaboration, aiming to reach a 20percent growth in tourism income in secondary provinces by 2020. 

This is the first memorandum of understanding(MoU) between the national tourism organisation and an online travel agent ontourism marketing and promotion collaboration. 

Earlier, the TAT signed an agreement withChina's Alibaba to promote attractions in Thailand to Chinese tourists throughAlibaba social media outlets. 

Under the agreement with Expedia Group, TATpredicts more foreign tourists travelling to Thailand and more Thais visitingattractions across the country. 

Both foreigners and locals should help boostincome growth to communities in secondary provinces from 9-10 percent last yearto 20 percent over the next two years.

TATis promoting 55 secondary provinces under its campaign called Amazing ThailandGo Local. Some of Thailand's secondary cities are Chiang Rai, Koh Lipe, MaeHong Son, Trang and Trat. 

As part of the MoU, the collaboration willinclude sharing of traveller insights and trends and boosting the TAT'scapabilities to plan effective promotional campaigns, thus attracting moretourists and encouraging longer stays in Thailand.

In addition, Expedia Group will launch keyprogrammes on destination marketing and skills transfer to the localhospitality industry in secondary cities. Workshops for local hotel partners willbe included, along with accelerated skills development and building revenue andhotel management capabilities among local small- and medium-sized accommodations. 

Meanwhile, JD.com, a leading Chinese e-commercecompany, is looking for as many Thai products as possible to sell on its onlineplatform. 

The top six priority items for Chinese buyersare snacks, beverages, textiles, frozen food, pet care products and beautyproducts. 

JD.com debuted the JDThai platform this June,offering 400 Thai items. 

In September last year, JD.com announced anaggregate investment of up to 500 million USD with Central Group to establishtwo joint ventures in Thailandcovering e-commerce and fintech services. Under the terms of the agreement,half of the investment will come from Central Group.

Thecompany has 300 million active customers via its e-commerce platform and170,000 stores on its platform. 

JD.com sales grew by 30 percent last year to 56billion USD, faster than retailers in the US market. -VNA
VNA

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