TAT Launches New Mobile Phone App with Nokia Thailand

Mr. Suraphon Svetasreni

Mr. Suraphon Svetasreni, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), presided over the press conference ‘Promoting Thai Tourism on Digital Platforms and Mobile Applications’ at the Enigma Theatre, Siam Paragon, affirming official cooperation between the organisation and Nokia Thailand. The host of the event also included Mr. Jirapat Janjerdsak, Nokia's head ecosystem developer. The conference introduced ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ mobile application and a new game ‘Thailand Racing by Smile Land’ for Nokia smartphones that run the Windows Phone operating system, following its success on other mobile platforms.

“I’m truly glad that TAT finally has the chance to work with Nokia on an innovation that will help promote Thailand’s tourism using Nokia smartphones running Windows Phone. After our huge success on the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Blackberry and Nokia smartphones, TAT decided to embrace the Windows Phone mobiles so that we would cover all the smartphones in the market. Therefore, to celebrate our achievement, we are presenting ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ mobile application now available for every mobile operating system, renovated with new astonishing designs and packed with comprehensive contents plus special travel offers from numerous online agencies in Thailand. TAT has expected that the total downloads of the app should double from its previous release, which has been downloaded for more than 300,000 times so far by smartphone users around the world. Now we are confident to consider a mobile application as an absolutely potential channel for promoting Thai tourism to people on the other side of the world. It is such a productive collaboration we have with Nokia, and we are looking forward to welcoming any other innovations that would help promote Thailand to the world and encourage tourism activities in our country like the Amazing Thailand app does,” said Mr. Suraphon.

The New Amazing Thailand

The highlights of ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ mobile app are its new functionalities that seem to resonate with most travellers. For example, the Augmented Reality (AR) feature allows travellers to instantly access details and information of things and places around them. The QR code scanning capability offers tourists an ability to get travel info quickly. The Interactive Map provides tourists with travelling routes to a number of interesting destinations. The Search and Filter options let users find tourist info that best suit their interests. Aware of the social network sensation today, the app is equipped with Check-in functionality allowing users to share their experience in Thailand on the go via their Facebook. ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ application is expected to trigger a greater exploitation of digital platform usage for the purpose of Thai tourism promotion, and accelerate use frequency of other mobile applications from TAT.

Mr. Jirapat Janjerdsak, Nokia's head ecosystem developer, said that the company was delighted to have cooperated with the Tourism Authority of Thailand in order to encourage the Thai tourism industry and the country’s wireless communications environment. Not only does the application meet the needs of tourists, but as well urge Thai developers to strive for better application development.

‘The New Amazing Thailand’ mobile application is now available on Nokia Lumia 900, 800, 710, and 610, which have already been distributed to various stores in Thailand. The impeccable and user-friendly smartphones meeting with the perfect application will obviously offer consumers the best using experience.

In addition to ‘The New Amazing Thailand’, Nokia has also been working with TAT on the new game named ‘Thailand Racing by Smile Land’, to be launched specifically on the Windows Phone mobile operating system. The game presents Thailand’s amazing attractions by using them as racing scenes which are brought from the numerous settings in the Smile Land game on Facebook. It also features a unique racing experience depending on the locations throughout Thailand; such as, car racing, boat racing, bike racing, and even animal racing where players get to ride on a buffalo or an elephant while racing. Special items and scores on the game can also be accumulated with the players’ Smile Land accounts on Facebook. Nokia presumes that both ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ and ‘Thailand Racing by Smile Land’ game, prospectively owned by a tremendous number of Nokia Lumia users around the world, will greatly improve the image of Thailand and its tourism industry.

The New Amazing Thailand App

Moreover, at the TAT Digital Organization booth in the upcoming Thailand Tourism Festival 2012, which will be held on June 6 – 10, 2012, at Challenger Hall 1 – 3, Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani, Nokia Thailand will join TAT to assist with the promotion of ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ application and arrange an activity to introduce ‘Thailand Racing by Smile Land’ through Nokia Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone.

Learn more about ‘The New Amazing Thailand’ mobile application at mobile.tourismthailand.org.

Learn more about ‘Thailand Racing by Smile Land’ at http://www.smilelandgame.com/.

Learn more about Nokia Thailand at http://www.nokia.co.th/.

For more information, please contact:

TAT: Marketing Information Technology Group, Tourism Authority of Thailand

1600 Phetchaburi Rd., Makkasan, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

Tel. 66 2 250-5500 ext. 2832-38, http://www.tatnewsthai.org/

Nokia: Nokia (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Khun Thatsaran Kaewsrisod, Tel. 66 8 9533 0350

Khun Jiraporn Boonnark, Tel. 66 2 673-8888

International Public Relations Division
Tourism Authority of Thailand
1600 New Petchaburi Road, Makkasan, Ratchathevi
Bangkok 10400 Thailand
Tel: 66 (0) 2250 5500 ext.4545-4548, Fax: 66 (0) 2253 7419
Email: prdiv3@tat.or.th

For the latest updates, please visit
http://www.tatnews.org/