Bangkok, 16 July 2018, Tourism Authority of Thailand (the ‘TAT’), together with True, Mittare Insurance Public Company, Nok Air ,README.ME and TraveliGo.com have announced the launch of “ Aor Sor Social ” – an online community group of volunteers to help promote village tourism and inspire millennial travelers to experience “One Night Stay with Locals” programs.
TAT Governor Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, said “thai millennial travelers represent one of the most important markets at the moment, and we would like to invite them to travel to the country’s local communities. Thai millennial traveler’s insight have indicated that their top 4 criteria that inspire them to “go local” arefirstly that there is a range of fun activities, secondly, there is beautiful scenery, third, the local food, and finally the unique accommodationoptions on offer at each destination. They also tend to think that existing information about local tourism on social media platforms is, in most cases, not particularly inspirational. With this information in mind, the TAT has carried out two key things; firstly, they have gone through a selection process to find the right villages based on those millennial insights, and there are now 14 communities that are ready to welcome them. These are:
- Pha Mee Community, Chiang Rai Province
- Ban Tha Khan Thong Community, Chiang Rai Province
- Pang Ha Home Stay, Chiang Rai Province
- Sila Petch Community, Nan Province
- Ban Pa Miang Community, Lampang Province
- Laem Phak Bia Community, Petchaburi Province
- Ban Laem Klad Community, Trat Province
- Khiri Wong kot Community, Udon Thani Province
- Phrom Lok Community, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province
- Ban Sam Chong Neuh, Phang Nga Province
- Pa Tew (Bang Son) Tourist Community, Chumphon Province
- Boh Hin Farm Stay Community, Trang Province
- Ta Mod Community, Phatthalung Province
- Baan Chulaporn Patthana9 Community, Yala Province
The second important thing that the TAT has done is to recruit an online community group of citizens who love to travel and have a volunteer spirit to join the mission of “ Aor Sor Social ” (Aor Sor in Thai means volunteer people). The mission of Aor Sor Social is to help promote each village by creating digital travel content, such as videos clips, photos, and reviews, and then sharing all of this on social media platforms. The overall aim is to inspire millennial travelers to experience the unique village tour programs called “One Night Stay with Locals”.
For more details, please check out www.OneNightStaywithLocals.com.
TAT Governor Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, concluded that “the TAT is very confident that Aor Sor Social will accomplish the mission to boost the number of millennial travelers ‘going local’ and experiencing the one night stay with locals programs in the chosen villages. This will also help to generate more revenue for the local communities while villagers will also have the opportunity to learn new social media skills in order to promote their village across the social world, all of which would be a sign of real sustainable success.”
