Thailand is building an AI-powered tourism ecosystem to manage its visitors

Thailand welcomed more than 16.2 million international visitors between 1 January and 4 July 2026, generating 782.6 billion baht (S$29.90 billion) in tourism revenue, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.  

At that scale, the challenge is no longer simply how to attract more tourists, but how to manage where they go, what value they generate, and how tourism benefits are distributed across the country. 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) wants to tap into artificial intelligence (AI) to help travellers plan their trips, and the government understand visitor behaviour, manage demand, and distribute tourism benefits more evenly across the country.  

At the centre of this transformation is Thailand's Tourism Intelligence Powered by AI (TAT-AI), which is also leveraging its national tourism data warehouse. 

This system consolidates previously scattered data streams from different government agencies, and then uses AI to aggregate tourism data, including attractions, reviews, transportation information, and traveller’s behaviour. 

Speaking to GovInsider, TAT’s Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications Nithee Seeprae says the transformation reflects a wider change in how Thailand defines tourism success.  

TAT is shifting towards a “Value over Volume” approach, looking beyond visitor numbers to include per-capita tourism revenue, length of stay, repeat visitation, the distribution of tourists to secondary provinces and the quality of life of local communities.  

The aim is to generate greater value from tourism while reducing pressure on popular destinations and ensuring that more communities benefit from the sector. 

From AI travel assistant to government data infrastructure 

Thailand's AI tourism strategy operates at two levels. 

The first is the consumer-facing layer. TAT has launched the Amazing Thailand Travel Guide GPTs, designed as an AI-powered personal travel assistant that can recommend routes, accommodation, restaurants, activities and local festivals based on individual interests.  

The tool also encourages visitors to look beyond Thailand's established tourism centres to discover secondary cities and community-based destinations. 

The second layer is to support the government’s planning. 

TAT-AI brings together information from multiple sources so that tourism authorities can better understand demand and make more informed decisions. 

Seeprae says AI is already being explored for forecasting tourist numbers, audience segmentation, content generation and translation, as well as multilingual chatbots and virtual assistants.  

The ambition is to make AI increasingly invisible to the traveller. while making government decision-making more intelligent behind the scenes. 

Breaking down tourism data silos 

Seeprae highlights that the challenge is in connecting data that currently sits across different organisations and sectors.  

TAT is working towards integrating information from government agencies, private sector companies and digital platforms, potentially including immigration, airlines, accommodation providers and other tourism-related services. 

The TAT Intelligence Center already collects and analyses tourism statistics, research and behavioural information, while the TAT Data Catalog provides public access to datasets covering attractions, travel routes, tourism product standards and tourism situation updates. 

The next step is a more connected model in which data can support decisions across the tourism ecosystem.  

The demand side is addressed by the Amazing Thailand mobile superapp, developed with Mastercard, as an all-in-one platform covering elements of the travel journey from destination discovery to payments and VAT refunds.  

The supply side is tackled by TAT's Stakeholder Portal Platform, which allows tourism businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to showcase their products and services and gain insights into traveller’s behaviour.  

Travellers receive more relevant services and recommendations, while businesses and policymakers gain better insight into demand. 

TAT also wants to deepen data partnerships with private-sector platforms. In mid-2026, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Agoda to combine the platform's digital expertise and insights into traveller’s behaviour with TAT's destination marketing capabilities.  

The partnership is intended to support data-driven marketing campaigns and tourism products, including initiatives around wellness tourism and travel safety. 

Using AI to tackle overtourism 

One of the more interesting applications of the system is destination management. 

Thailand faces a familiar tourism dilemma where some destinations experience intense visitor pressure while other areas with significant tourism potential struggle to attract visitors.  

Instead of simply marketing Thailand more aggressively, TAT can use technology to identify who is travelling, what they are interested in, when they travel and where they currently go.  

These insights can inform campaigns designed to encourage off-peak travel and direct visitors towards secondary provinces. 

The approach is already being explored through initiatives such as the Krabi Prototype for Regenerative Tourism and the Chiang Mai Prototype, which focus on green tourism, community-based experiences and innovation.  

The objective is not just to make tourism more convenient, but to influence its geographic and seasonal distribution. 

Building a connected visitor journey 

TAT is currently working with other government agencies and private sector partners on digital services intended to make the visitor journey more seamless.  

One example is the “Pay Like a Local” cross-border QR payment initiative, developed with the Bank of Thailand, partner banks and international payment networks.  

It allows travellers from several Asian markets to use their home country's banking apps or e-wallets to make digital payments in Thailand. 

TAT has also partnered with travel technology companies, including Chinese B2B travel wholesaler DIDA Travel Technology, with the aim of creating a “Digital Bridge” between international travellers and Thailand's tourism ecosystem.  

As Seeprae puts it, “a connected tourism ecosystem does not mean consolidating every service under one entity. It means enabling organisations to work together through operational links, shared standards and data integration.” 

The 2035 ambition: enter data once, access to all

Where Thailand wants this transformation to lead comes in through TAT's vision for 2035.  

TAT wants the country to move towards a model where information provided by travellers can be reused across different government touchpoints. 

Seeprae points to the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC), which replaced the traditional paper TM.6 arrival/departure card, as a tangible example of this direction.  

The longer-term ambition is for information submitted by a traveller to potentially flow across immigration, customs, security and tourism information services, reducing the need for visitors to repeatedly provide the same information. 

This would shift the digital transformation from individual tourism applications towards a broader government interoperability agenda. 

For travellers, the goal would be fewer forms, fewer repeated processes and more personalised services.  

For government, the benefit is a richer understanding of the tourism journey and stronger coordination between agencies. 

A different definition of smart tourism 

Thailand wants to identify higher-value visitor segments, reduce pressure on overcrowded destinations, encourage travel to secondary provinces, and help local businesses respond to changing demand. 

Seeprae says priority segments include medical and wellness tourism, luxury travel, incentive travel, sports tourism and sustainable tourism.  

The ambition is a year-round tourism economy in which visitors are spread across destinations and seasons rather than concentrated in a small number of locations. 

Technology, in this model, is not the destination. It is the infrastructure operating behind the scenes. 

“Thailand's goal is not simply to attract the highest possible number of tourists, but to become a high-quality, sustainable and year-round destination managed through smart technology,” he explains.