Srettha seeks help from TikTok, Booking.com to promote Thailand

Srettha said on Wednesday that he had met executives of the two platforms at The Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco earlier in the day to discuss measures through which they could help promote Thailand.

Srettha said the executives of TikTok visited him at his hotel.

“The visit was no surprise because there are 43 million TikTok users in Thailand. It’s very high. Everybody likes to post their video clips on TikTok,” Srettha said.

The prime minister said his government would ensure that TikTok can run its business smoothly in Thailand while the platform could help promote products of the Thai people, such as Otop (One Product One Tambon) goods.

“I told TikTok executives that we have provinces other than Chiang Mai, Phuket and Bangkok and we want to promote services and Thai goods as soft power,” Srettha said.

He said he asked TikTok executives to open a training centre in Thailand to help train Thais to use the platform to promote their services and products.

Srettha said such a training centre would help Thais understand how to use the platform to the greatest effectiveness.

The prime minister said he promised tax incentives from the Board of Investment for TikTok and the executives expressed interest in the proposal.

During his meeting with Booking.com executives, Srettha said the platform could be improved to promote foreign arrivals to Thailand.

Srettha noted that after his government exempted visas for tourists from four nations, views on the platform had gone up sevenfold but he felt this could further increase with the right marketing..

Srettha told Booking.com executives that the two reservation platforms could help promote tourism as Thai soft power and the executives promised to contact the Tourism Authority of Thailand to discuss cooperation between them and the government.