BANGKOK, May 17 (TNA) – Government Savings Bank is joining forces with Airbnb to promote homestay accommodation operators and wish to better distribute tourism-related income in the country.
GSB president Chatchai Payuhanaveechai said the cooperation with Airbnb would promote local tourism in communities nationwide.
Under the cooperation, Airbnb will use its home-sharing platform to bring tourists to homestay accommodations in communities, he said.
GSB trained its staff and representatives of homestay operators nationwide on Airbnb services on May 15-17 and they would share their knowledge with local homestay service providers, Mr Chatchai said.
He also said that GSB was lending 50,000-1,000,000 baht to each homestay operator for service improvement. About 300 such operators have borrowed about 28 million baht from the bank.
Mike Orgill, Airbnb’s general manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said tourists wanted new experiences, so local tourism was growing. He also said that homestay services were popular among customers of Airbnb.
The cooperation with GSB should effectively distribute travelers to secondary tourist destination provinces, he said. (TNA)
