The guide will also help tourism businesses identify potential technologies which can be used in the industry.

According to TCC's president, Apichai Sakulsureeyadej, the TCC will focus on four key areas -- hotels, restaurants, travel agents and the spa business.

Since these types of businesses are key in driving the tourism industry, Apichai said TCC would further develop each sector.

He said that since the world was moving towards the electronic-tourism era, it's inevitable that local tourism entrepreneurs would have to adopt new technology to improve their business and cope with new trends.

Realising the island of separation between tourism entrepreneurs and local software developers, TTC was set up two years ago to bridge the gap, acting as an intermediary to bring new technology to local tourism entrepreneurs.

"We act as a centre to bring both sides together so they can share their experiences with tourism technology," he said.

He said the technology roadmap TCC was developing would guide local tourism entrepreneurs along the path of technology development, while software developers could also see what they should develop to support the industry.

"We're drawing a picture in each area on what kinds of technology there should be to support the business," he said.

As the tourism business is a big industry, Apichai said it also represents a big potential market for software entrepreneurs.

The local tourism industry has begun to realise the importance of technology and they plan to adopt it. Apichai said the IT market value from tourism would grow dramatically since the entrepreneurs could not escape the advent of electronic tourism.

"We believe that more than 50 per cent of local tourism businesses in the next two years will adopt IT to improve their business, and this will be a big market for the software industry," he added.

TCC started to educate local tourism businesses on the importance of technology two years ago. Apichai said that TCC would encourage tourism businesses towards practical adoption of IT.

"At this stage, we hope to help local tourism entrepreneurs strengthen their business with IT, and then, after each block of business is strong enough, they can link with one another to create a network," he said.

Meanwhile, TCC also plans to encourage local software developers to develop technology to support the industry. He speculated that the tourism business would be a key revenue source for local software developers as not only could they sell their products domestically, they could export internationally as well.

"We see that the tourism industry is a business that can generate income to the software industry in this country. If we put more support in this area, Thailand can stay at the forefront as the top producer of IT tourism in the region," he said.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation