(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The Tourism Authority of Thailand, or TAT, has launched its first smartphone application designed specifically to make it easier for the growing number of Muslim visitors to the country to find Muslim-friendly products, services and facilities nationwide.
The app for the iOS and Android is both an online and offline guidebook that will help Muslim visitors find mosques, halal restaurants and hotels, shopping centres with prayer rooms, and other facilities of cultural importance to Muslim travellers.
Juthaporn Rerngronasa, acting governor of TAT, said: "We are especially happy to launch this app in the holy month of Ramadan. We hope it will be useful to the many Muslim visitors from Indonesia and Malaysia, who may choose to visit Thailand during the upcoming Eid Al Fitr holidays."
Rerngronasa also noted that Thailand is already the top destination for Middle East travellers in Asia. Amongst the non-Muslim countries, Thailand is ranked second in the world by the Global Muslim Travel Index 2015. A critical component of Thailand's newly-launched strategy to position the country as a Muslim friendly destination, the app has been launched initially in English and Thai, but will be expanded to include Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia later. It also has a search and navigation feature to help quickly locate specific places and estimate the time it will take to get there from a users' current location. The app was developed with the support of the Halal Science Centre of Chulalongkorn University, the Foundation of the Islamic Centre of Thailand, the Halal Standards Institute of Thailand and the Tourism Council of Thailand.
Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, the Thailand Minister of Tourism and Sports, recently said that the Middle East market has remained an important source market for the country, with a 49.62 per cent increase in the total number of arrivals in January 2015.
Her words were echoed by Chalermsak Suranant, director of the TAT Dubai and Middle East office, who said that visitors from the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait already comprise the highest spending category of visitors to Thailand.
"They also play a major role in helping to fill up hotel rooms in the green season, the monsoon months from July to August, when visitors from the traditional markets of Europe and North America experience a slight dip," Suranant explained.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.