This move, it is hoped, will not only promote tourism in Thailand but also open markets for local software developers.

Panutat Tejasen, Sipa Chiang Mai branch manager, said the agency had developed GIS for Thailand's tourism collaborative commerce (TTCC) project to gather information on tourism and related services in five areas - Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Samui and Bangkok - and the GIS is accessible to travel websites both locally and globally.

The GIS for tourism application was developed by Sipa Chiang Mai, after it purchased map engines from local companies to make further developments. The program itself comes with an open application program interface, in order to allow webmasters to develop and add more applications as required.

Sipa Chiang Mai worked on an electronic base map of the five areas and included information relevant to tourism and related services including hotels, tourist attractions, restaurants, golf facilities, souvenirs, spas, car rentals, Otop centres and handicrafts. It plans to list at least 1,200 tourism related businesses in each area, and a total of 7,000 businesses in all.

"To collect accurate and up-to-date information, we hired people to ride motorcycles equipped with global positioning system receivers to go around Chiang Mai collecting locations and details of each tourism destination for the electronic base map," said Panutat.

Around 40 independent software developers in Chiang Mai have participated in the GIS system that serves Chiang Mai's tourism businesses.

 Once the GIS for Thailand's TTCC infrastructure has been completely developed, it will be available for free download at www.chiangmai.ttcc.org 

It is expected that by the end of this year around 400 travel websites will contain the information. It is also hoped that by the next three years about 4,000 to 5,000 travel websites around the world will have the same.

 Panutat said the website will feature in the Google search engine for the Thai tourism industry, so people around the world can easily access information relating to travel in Thailand.

Panutat said the search engine would allow tourists from all over the world to plan trips to Thailand as they will have access to intricate details.

"We are catching on to the new wave of technology and trends. We expect the TTCC website will be among the foremost in search engines around the world and will be the flagship website representing Thailand's tourism industry," said Panutat.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation