Airportels and TakeMeTour won the “TAT Startup” Award

27 September 2018 Startups

Two Thai startups “Airportels” and “TakeMeTour” won the “TAT Startup New Entrepreneurs” Award organised by Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

Mrs Dujitra Jongchansitto, TAT Deputy Governor for Tourism Products and Business discloses that the “TAT Startup New Entrepreneurs” aims to encourage startups to join and grow together with the travel business as it is an opportunity for them to do overseas expansion. All the 6 winning teams will present their works at World Travel Market (WTM) 2018 which is the leading global event for the travel industry to be taken place in London during November 5-7, 2018.

The award ceremony opened the stage for the 6 finalist teams to present their projects. The teams of further business category are TakeMeTour, Golfdigg and MuayThaiOK; and the teams of emerging business are Airportels, UMT (Tuk Tuk Hop) and Infinite FREAK (Immersive Ayutthaya). TakeMeTour was announced the winner of further business category and Airportels the winner of emerging business.

Apichoke Prassertrungruang, Co-Founder and General Manager of Airportels points out that Airportels is comparable with “Uber for Luggage” who perceives a pain point of tourists in Thailand that they have to carry their luggage to the hotel for check-in before 2 pm. “We can help them by delivery the luggage from the airport to the hotels throughout the country at a eco price with on-time guarantee.

At present, there are around 200-300 Airportels users per day and most are new generations well-educated travelers from China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Amornched Jinda-apirak, CEO and Co-Founder of TakeMeTour states that a key strength of TakeMeTour is a platform connecting tourists and tour leader, so-called local experts which are those the local people who lead the travel attractions or restaurants. Having the local people as a tour leader can help decrease niggling problem and enable tourists to truly appreciate the local life. The booking via TakeMeTour currently is around thousands per month and it’s expected to increase to 3,000 bookings during the winter.

Both teams will receive 300,000 baht cash and trophy, while the first runner-ups: MuayThaiOK and Infinite FREAK will receive 200,000 baht, and the second runner-ups Golfdigg and UMT each will receive 100,000 baht.

TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn says that TravelTech startups should make their services impressive and accepted by tourists, while TAT has a duty to further their capabilities. TAT is willing to join hands growing the startup business and promoting Thai startups to represent at the WTM 2018. “We may not have customers on the first day at WTM 2018, but it’s the business opportunity.

“Have these startups to meet with most target groups is my job. We need not to compete with others, but with ourselves in offering the best service to customers four sustainable quality tourism,” said Mr Yuthasak.