Dugong-hunting drones boost tourism on southern Thai island
An award-winning project that uses drones to locate dugongs for tourist trips in the Andaman Sea was praised by the digital economy minister on Friday.
Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn was inspecting the project on Libong Island, Trang, which is famed for its herds of dugong, also known as sea cows.
The project is boosting local revenue by over 2 million baht per year and cutting costs for boats searching for dugongs by 196,000 baht per month, Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) president Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin said on Friday.
In the past, tour boat operators relied on reports of dugong sightings to locate the creatures.
“Doing so didn’t guarantee accuracy and wasted a lot of energy,” Nuttapon said.
Now, the drones locate and photo the dugongs and send their coordinates back to a control centre on the island.
The photos are displayed on a screen at Libong’s tourist centre, which also allows disabled and elderly visitors who are unable to join boat trips to follow dugong sightings in real time, Nuttapon said.
The project, part of efforts to promote digital innovation on Libong, is a collaboration between Depa, the Community Organisations Development Institute and the island’s tourism and occupation development enterprise. It won a 2022 United Nations Public Service Award in June.
Minister Chaiwut, Nattupon and other ministry officials watched a drone locate dugongs off the island before the delegation was taken on boats to view them.
Chaiwut said that the project underlined the success of the ministry and Depa in promoting the use of digital technology to ensure sustainable development in local communities.
