DVM Chadon Suwanarit, managing director of Royal Canin (Thailand) Co Ltd, said the Thai people are have shifted their pet-related behaviour. In the past, animals were kept to help watch over the house or catch the rats, but pets are today viewed as companions and cared for like a family member.

In order to respond to this trend in which dogs and cats are properly cared for to ensure their health, the company has focused on educating pet lovers about good nutrition via many channels, including through veterinary clinics, breeders, pet shops and online platforms.

The company has recently developed an application, “Royal Canin Club”, to help dog and cat owners understand how to take better care of their pets. The app hosts much useful knowledge related to cat and dog age and breeds and is sourced from nutritionists and veterinarians.

“Due to the 8 million dogs and 4 million cats in Thailand’s urban areas and cities, the Thai pet-food market has seen an increasing trend every year, with demand from pet owners rising an estimated 4-5 per cent per year,” said Chadon.

“Driving factors include the changing lifestyles of Thai consumers. Thai people tend to be in more and more of micro family. They are also health conscious, remain single or have fewer children. Therefore, pets become their life companions. Pets become family members. The pet owners are concerned more about pets’ health, and are willing to spend more on valuable products for them to make their pets healthier and live longer.”

The overall market value of dog and cat food was estimated to be over Bt15 billion, with local manufacturers and importers providing more than 30 brands, said Chadon.

The market could be categorised into two groups based on marketing and distribution channels. First, the grocery and modern trade channel (convenience stores and supermarkets) commanded 40 per cent of the market share with a growth rate of 1.2 per cent last year. Second, the speciality trade channel (pet food shops, veterinary clinics and breeders) controlled the remaining 60 per cent with a 7.3 per cent growth rate last year.

Royal Canin had ranked the third in overall market but has remained in second place within the speciality trade channel. The company expected to reach the top of the channel next year, as supported by the organic growth of dog and cat food markets, as ever-more people take dogs and cats as family companions.

It is expected that the market for dog and cat diets will grow by 5 per cent next year, with the higher growth projected in cat food.

Regarding the company’s sales, Royal Canin (Thailand) is confident of achieving its sales target of Bt2 billion this year, 12 per cent above last year’s Bt1.8 billion.

The company plans to expand the nutrition-focused diets for dogs and cats by educating pet owners and through adding additional marketing and distributing channels. It has marketed its products via pet shops (70 per cent), veterinary clinics (25 per cent), breeders (3 per cent) as well as another 2 per cent via e-commerce, a new marketing channel added since late last year in order to expand the customer base.

Meanwhile, “Royal Canin” has emphasised the importance of establishing good relationships with pet owners through marketing activities and sale channels that suit their behaviour. The company will participate in the Pet Expo 2019, which is on May 30 to 2nd June 2, 2019 at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (Bitec).

“Royal Canin has spent over 50 years collaborating closely with animal experts, scientists, breeders and veterinarians to understand their unique dietary requirements. We have accumulated a vast amount of knowledge about cats and dogs’ needs based on their size, age, lifestyle, life stage, breed and specific health needs,” said Chadon.

“Notwithstanding that we’ve dedicated our lives to creating the most precise formulations of nutrients through long-term scientific observation, we have also moved forward to educate our partners, customers and consumers about the nutritional diets for pets,” he said.

“Our ambition is to be the health reference through nutrition for cats and dogs.”

AIA and Medix are partnering to deliver a differentiated proposition that optimises care and improves medical outcomes for AIA customers across the region. Under the expanded regional partnership, which they say is building on the successful collaboration between AIA and Medix in Hong Kong and Singapore, the companies will work together to launch in more markets in 2019, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. Additional markets are planned for launch in 2020 and beyond.

Under the exclusive partnership with Medix, selected AIA customers will have access to “personal medical case management services” during some of the most challenging times of their lives, according to the release. When diagnosed with a serious or complex condition AIA customers will be supported by a dedicated case team throughout their medical journey, from diagnosis through treatment until full recovery. They will gain access to a holistic medical assessment, re-evaluation of their condition, referral for additional diagnostic testing – and where needed, ongoing multi-disciplinary consultations, full care coordination, on-going guidance and emotional support provided by Medix’s team of medical experts from around the globe.

Eligible AIA customers will have their medical case reviewed by Medix’s team of 300 in-house physicians and a global accredited network of more than 3,000 world-leading and independent medical specialists, ensuring they have the tools to make educated, quality-driven decisions and receive the best possible care throughout their medical journey, anywhere in the world, the release said.

Ng Keng Hooi, AIA’s group chief executive and president, said in the release that the announcement underscores AIA’s commitment to meet the growing and changing needs of customers and to help people live “healthier, lLonger, better lives”.

“With the advances in medical treatments and technologies, the expectations of Asian consumers have changed significantly, with personalised, quality medical care at the top of their list. This strategic partnership with Medix exemplifies our leadership role in driving economic and social development across the region. It demonstrates our pledge to go beyond the traditional, passive insurance business model by becoming an integral part of our customers’ life journey” he said.

Mark Saunders, AIA’s group chief strategy and corporate development officer with responsibility for healthcare, underlined AIA’s strategy and deliberate investment in helping improve the health and well-being of its customers. He said, “AIA’s expanded partnership with Medix represents a significant step forward in delivering our long-term strategic vision in the health and well-being space, where we’ve invested significantly and consistently over the past several years. It builds on a highly successful partnership in Hong Kong and Singapore, where we’ve been able to provide Medix’s unparalleled medical case management services to our customers”.

“To successfully deliver on our vision to help people be healthier for longer, we are building an ecosystem of services and partners to help people on all steps of the health journey through predict, prevent, diagnose, treat and recover stages, improving their overall well-being. Our exclusive partnership with Medix across our markets enhances AIA’s distinctive and differentiated proposition in health and well being. By providing our policyholders with personal medical case management, AIA helps overcome local healthcare disparities and makes international expertise, locally available through a mutually beneficial collaborative process,” Saunders said.

Sigal Atzmon, CEO of Medix commended AIA’s visionary and innovative approach to driving meaningful improvements in people’s lives across the region.

“This is a partnership that will make a genuine difference; it represents a shared vision and a commitment to reduce unwarranted healthcare variations across the region, and improve medical accessibility, medical outcomes and most importantly, the overall care experience” Atzmon said.

“Through this partnership, we provide personalised medical care, empower patients with the knowledge and tools they deserve to make educated decisions and offer active coverage in the daily lives of each policyholder. As such, we are enabling an unprecedented democratisation of the entire healthcare landscape.

“AIA, as one of the world’s largest and leading insurers should be applauded for the courageous, pioneering spirit they have shown over the last 100 years,” said Atzmon.

“Their vision and commitment to improving the lives of their customers [and] people across the region is unwavering and we are honoured to be a part of their next chapter.”

“The key ambition for our three-year business plan is to focus on covering upstream and downstream for both the paper and plastic businesses through joint ventures for kraft paper and plastic film, as well as downstream for food paper and plastic pouches,” said Vorawat.

He said BG Packaging Co Ltd (BGP) has plans for mergers and acquisitions in the near future. Potential businesses include kraft paper, corrugated box capacity expansion, plastic film for flexible packing and labels, and pouch expansion for flexible packing.

Vorawat said the key challenge faced by packaging business operators was new competitors entering the market due to the low investment required. The company’s strategies for the next three years would be to overcome this challenge and to ensure sustainable growth to become a one-stop service and to offer the full package of caps, bottles, labels and boxes at one time.

BGP manufactures and sells a variety of packaging products, including crown caps, plastic closures, PET bottles, crate containers and corrugated cartons.

He said another risk factor of concern to the company was the possible increase in the prices of raw material, both plastic and paper, due to the higher price of oil. BGP aims to tackle the cost problem through development of a “strategic partnership”.

“We will purchase raw materials continuously from particular suppliers in higher quantities. This will help us to reduce raw material prices in the third and fourth quarter of this year. In addition, we will be able to control the prices of plastic raw materials to be at an appropriate level to control the manufacturing cost. For paper raw materials, we need to see the direction of paper exports in many markets, especially recycled paper from China, as it will impact market prices of paper in Thailand,” said Vorawat.

He said BGP also is interested in expanding production of crate containers and corrugated cartons, which are currently supplied to beverage manufacturers. The company is looking to expand its packaging customers to those producing other goods such as foods and sauces, electronic products and parcels. That expansion is expected by next year.

“We expect to achieve Bt1.8 billion in total revenue this year, of which Bt800 million will be from paper boxes, Bt350 million from plastic bottles, Bt300 million from caps and Bt350 million from labels,” said Vorawat.

Then over the next three years, the company’s expansion plans target potential Asean markets, focusing on plastic caps, PET bottles and labels in CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam).

“We have seen continuous growth of the domestic packaging markets both in Laos and the Philippines. In Laos, the demand for packaging products has increased significantly due to fewer packaging manufacturers, especially for plastic labels. In the Philippines, BGP has strong competitiveness, especially in pricing. By ensuring good quality and reasonable pricing, we believe our packaging business will grow in these markets,” said Vorawat.

The key driving factors for business growth are the high growth of the paper business in the food and e-commerce segments, as well as flexibility of the packaging business driven by high growth in the food and household segments.

Tunyawat later led the centre to research and develop ways to cash in on this abandoned value, and finally proposed that the company produce refined tuna oil as a new business.

And now, the long journey of extracting value from the remains of tuna-fish has reached its destination. Crude fish oil extracted in Samut Sakhon province is being shipped to Germany, where Thai Union’s new marine oil refinery is purifying the oil to be sold in the market.

A view of the Thai Union Marine Nutrients marine oil refinery in Rostock, Germany.

Five months after the seafood giant’s “Thai Union Marine Nutrients” oil refinery in Rostock, Germany, began operations late last year, they have so far sold 250 tonnes of refined tuna oil to one of the world’s top five infant formula manufacturers.

In the past, the company had treated tuna fish heads as a waste and normally sold it as animal feed at Bt6 per kilo, but after being transformed into refined oil through state-of-the-art technology it has become a value-added product, Tunyawat said.

“And it could increase its value a 100 times if it were developed to the highest level for use as an ingredient in pharmaceutical products,” the director said, during a recent visit to the refinery by a group of Thai journalists.

Tunyawat Kasemsuwan, the director of Global Innovation Centre.

The new oil refinery business is the brainchild of the cutting-edge GIC, which researched for years how to utilise and add value to tuna, the core product of Thai Union.

It is also part of the company’s strategy to create a sustainable future for the tuna industry by innovating to maximise the valuation of the whole fish processed by Thai Union, one of the world’s top four tuna manufacturers.

With a $24-million (Bt764 million) investment in the refinery, the executives are confident of boosting Thai Union’s total revenue.

Leonardus Coolen, managing director of Thai Union Ingredients [TUI], said the timing of the investment in the oil refinery business was good, as it came amid high demand for refined tuna oil.

Coolen cited two reasons: First, refined tuna oil contains a high natural DHA concentration, which is a vital component for baby formula milk and contributes to a baby’s brain development.

Second, due to a new European Union regulation requiring a doubling of the percentage of DHA in infant formula in 2020, it is expected that the market would need additional sources of refined tuna oil, said Coolen.

Tuna oil is considered one of the best sources of Omega 3 and DHA critical to human health and infant development.

“It [the refined oil] will be the future of our company if the value of refined oil and all other co-products can contribute more than canned fish,” Tunyawat added.

In the meantime, Thai Union could also achieve “zero waste” from what is left from their production process, he said.

Whole supply chain

Thai Union has four or five refined tuna oil competitors worldwide, but it has an advantage over its rivals because it owns the whole supply chain.

“We produce raw tuna, have our own tuna factory, and produce crude tuna oil and then refine it at our own factory,” said Coolen.

Leonardus Coolen, managing director of Thai Union Ingredients.

“By having control over the entire production chain, we can focus on quality and sustainability from dock to door while employing traceability in the picture and focusing on sustainability throughout the supply chain,” he added.

Traceability combats IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing, ensuring operational compliance on vessels to manage the fish by-catch, and stamping out illegal or forced labour.

Moreover, by owning the fish from which the oil is extracted, the company can secure the required volumes for customers – unlike refined-tuna-oil-producing competitors who need to source crude oil in the market, added Coolen.

Thai Union’s crude tuna oil is extracted at its Samut Sakhon tuna-processing facilities from raw tuna heads – the best source for highest-quality tuna oil – before being shipped to its refinery in Rostock via the port of Hamburg.

Inside the Thai Union Marine Nutrients marine oil refinery in Rostock, Germany.

Apart from being located in a tech-driven region, the refinery is geographically well positioned as it is close to most of its customers, Coolen noted.

He expects its key customers to be large multinational companies, such as Nestle, Mead Johnson, Danone, FrieslandCampina and Abbott.

The firm has projected Bt800 million in revenue from both crude and refined oil this year, he said. The current price of refined tuna oil is $12-$15 per kilo, and $7-$8 for crude oil.

The firm will have a 25-30 per cent market share when the refinery can produce at its full capacity, or 5,000 tonnes annually, said Coolen. Full capacity is expected to be achieved within the next three to five years.

TUI is a business unit under Thai Union Group, and was established in 2017 to meet the growing demand for natural, seafood-derived products beneficial to human nutrition, such as marine Omega-3 fatty acids. It also aims to commercialise a new business-to-business line of high-value ingredients identified by its innovation centre.

The firm has been exploring opportunities to expand into production of other nutrients, including a wide range of protein products and bone calcium, Tunyawat said.

Anothai, now 48, fell in love with computers when he first encountered them on his university campus.

Despite his workload as a marketing student he felt driven to learn all he could about computer programming. He even worked as a teaching assistant at computer lab. These were his first steps on a path that would take him to the vice president’s office for Asian emerging markets at Dell Technologies.

After graduating with his marketing degree from Assumption University (ABAC), he lost no time in finding work a sales person for a Thai computer company, SVOA, where he stayed for three years.

By that time, he made good on a plan to become an entrepreneur. He joined with a friend to set up a local brand PC company and ran the business for two years. With that taste of entrepreneurship behind him, he returned to the corporate world, joining Compaq Company in its product and marketing department.

He recalls that the PC market had been dominated by local brand PCs, with such brands making up 80 per cent of the market. In that environment it was difficult for premium brands to gain market share.

But, when the Asian economic crisis struck in 1997, the PC market shrank rapidly. His company slashed the ranks of its employees until it was just Anothai left on his own in his department. He turned that crisis into an opportunity by carrying out a marketing strategy of his own creation. He hit upon the idea of bundling the products with a broadband internet service, provided by another company. That helped make to revive sales and he was rewarded with a promotion to manager of the consumer PC business unit.

He continued to work for Compaq and helped to deliver healthy growth as he moved upwards in his career path. His company acquired the rival Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), leading to his promotion as the executive overseeing the consumer and corporate markets as well as the business market. Then, when the company was acquired by Hewlett Packard (HP), he was promoted to the role of PSG director, overseeing the whole PC business of HP. Three year later, he moved to Dell as country manager of Dell Thailand.

From overseeing only Thailand, in 2010 he was also made responsible for the Indochina market, on the way to being put in charge of 32 emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region. He is the first Thai executive in the global technology company to be assigned such an extensive reach in marketing.

His role is to deal with the multicultural dimensions of the company in terms of markets, employees, and partners. He prides himself on getting along well with people of all cultures and backgrounds, he says. Anothai says a childhood in a military family, involving moves around the country, saw him get used to meeting a variety of people and build his interpersonal skills.

As his role as vice president for Asian emerging markets at Dell Technologies, he has promoted his Thai teams to oversee the market, naming members as country managers overseeing Indochina, with individual country managers for Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.

Across the 32 countries, the two main business of Dell Technologies are commercial and consumer businesses covering commercial PCs, notebooks and enterprise business. Dell’s business also includes the South Asia consumer division that takes in the Philippines and Indonesia.

“In APJ, Asia Pacific and Japan, Dell has six regions – Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia – and the rest are emerging markets,” says Anothai.

He says that when it comes to moulding a successful operation, what’s important are the right attitude and mindset, together with patience and a sense of endeavour. He has practised all of these qualities and has sought to imbue his with staff with them.

He says he is focused on goals, not rewards, so he is always striving to optimise in every way, rather than merely meet the targets. A key motivation is to turn the spotlight on Thailand.

“I am pleased, but not satisfied, when my staff meet the target. I always advise them to have sense of entrepreneurship, to strive to optimise and not just to meet the target,” Anothai says.

“We need to put pressure on them but always with showing respect towards them. We need to push them to gain a sense of ownership with responsibility and accountability. Having a sense of entrepreneurship

means we will not stop simply because we meet the target; we will go beyond that.”

When he started working at Dell, Thailand was a third-tier market for the company, but now it has grown into a first-tier market. The size of business at that time was just a tenth of what it is now.

As with any business, he says, the core strength rests with the people. Dell’s business expansion requires not only gaining the trust of customers and partners, but also the employees.

“The team is very important since they work for the company, They need to be motivated and have a growth mindset. We need to learn the differences in culture and people, and to motivate and support them,” says Anothai.

He regards problems as challenges and enjoys resolving them. Problems, he says, are part of life. He believe any problem has its own cycle; after it arises it will ultimately disappear.

“We need to have the right consciousness to deal with and solve such problems. And even after a problem disappears, it will come again,” Anothai says. “We just have to realise that and deal with it. So, mindset and attitude are very important. Luckily, we can practise what is needed. I do not believe it is a born-to-be skill.”

As work keeps him busy, he prefers not to talk about a work-life balance; instead, he speaks of work-life integration. Since he travels a lot, he is always working and living life at the same time. He loves local food, history, culture and people when he is on business trips, and he often stay longer to experience a given city and its people.

“I always integrate work into life and life into work. I do not wake up to go to work; I wake up to spend my life. If we have an attitude like this, we will never be bored working every day of the week,” says Anothai.

He says everyone and every business in the era of digital disruption need to adjust their attitudes and mindsets as well as prepare themselves for the changes ahead. The winners are those businesses that can adjust themselves quickly, regardless of their size.

“In the span of every five years, technologies will become powerful and notch advancements at the rate of 10 times. Therefore, in the next 15 years, we can expect to see 1,000 times more advances in technologies. This principle is the same as what happened in the last 15 years,” he says.

“In the next 15 years, nobody knows how the world will be, but one thing is sure – it will be never the same and we cannot escape that conclusion, no matter what people think about that.

“For example, artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, and the Internet of Things will play important roles, absolutely. Thai businesses and corporates need to be aware of this and prepare themselves to avoid the risk of being disrupted.”

As for individuals, he says, people need to make adjustments. Even though he has worked at Dell for 16 years, he says it feels as if he has worked for different companies over that period – such is the pace of change.

“Dell always adjusts itself, such as when it expanded from being a hardware provider to offering solutions as well as end-to-end solutions. Now, Dell Technologies offers a lot of solutions for data centres and the cloud, says Anothai.

He says Dell has always offered reskilling and upskilling for employees. For example, it has quarterly training, with its own university, Dell Sales University, providing the courses. Employee need to pass the core courses in order to move up.

Dell places great importance on people development.

“As a company, Dell has also always adjust itself. It started with direct model, but today it relies on a hybrid mode with channels. It changed from a model of built-to-order to be build-to-stock – all while retaining its DNA that is effective supply chain management,” Anothai says.

Dell created a big impact on the PC industry with its direct model and supply chain management that pulled down prices for PCs.

“Dell is still creating an impact, now with data centres and the cloud with the recent launch of Dell Technologies Cloud Platform,” Anothai says. “The company spends around US$4 billion on research and development each year. The vision of the company is to supply the advanced technologies that help our customers make the transformation to the digital era.”

He told The Nation on Friday that the collaboration would ensure that the telco is ready to evolve to 5G, despite speculation that it will be tough for the four telecom operators in Myanmar to launch 5G services this year.

“Technically, we are ready for some upgrades and spectrum allocations. Plus we have ongoing discussions with PTD [Posts and Telecommunications Department] for 5G development in Myanmar,” he said.

“We will ensure that our network is ready for 5G technology while we’re waiting for government approval.”

According to Verma, the deal signed with ZTE Corporation on Wednesday is the first of its kind in Myanmar, helping the country realise its potential for leapfrogging in technological terms. The partnership would leverage the expertise of ZTE Corporation and support Ooredoo’s efforts to provide an excellent telecom infrastructure in Myanmar.

“We are the first in Myanmar to launch initiatives towards 5G development, recognising the potential of 5G, which will unlock the next generation of wireless technology with high speeds, ultra-low latency and greater capacities,” Verma said.

The development of 5G would unleash new possibilities in mobility, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and several other industries, he added.

To kick off the partnership, Ooredoo Myanmar and ZTE Corporation will be considering potential test environments to deploy the telco’s 5G network. The test environments will be used to evaluate the performance of 5G network and technology to ensure that best-in-class service is achieved once the network is operational.

Verma said Ooredoo Group has been working towards bringing 5G technology to all the markets it operates in since 2014. It made history when it became the world’s first operator to launch a live 5G network in Qatar in May last year.

“Over the next few months, we have been planning to reach more world-firsts by testing 5G mobile and networks through user trials and commercial launches across the world, and Myanmar is no exception,” he said.

According to Verma, Ooredoo Myanmar has been building a strong cooperation with ZTE since 2014, and both companies are excited to move further together.

“Both parties believe that it will be a great opportunity to further strengthen our cooperation in the future, as we explore and discuss the path to 5G,” he said.

He added that the telco has chosen ZTE as its strategic partner due to the Chinese giant’s proven record in solid 5G cooperation with more than 40 operators worldwide.

“With the aim of keeping our business growing in the long run, ZTE will be the best partner to help us build the first 5G in Myanmar. We are confident that ZTE’s 5G end-to-end commercial products will support the full-band, full-scenario deployment needs,” he said.

Yet, Verma did not reveal how much the telco would invest in its efforts to bring 5G to Myanmar in the near future.

“We are still in discussions with PTD and we still don’t know about the costs yet,” he said.

A press release on Friday said that through the partnership, GSB will help ensure better funding for hospitality entrepreneurs by providing flexible-interest rate loans and instalment plans.

Airbnb will work with GSB to help build capacity through hospitality and hosting training while connecting homestay owners to its worldwide platform and marketplace network of over 500 million guests.

Dr. Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, GSB President and CEO, and Mike Orgill, Airbnb General Manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, jointly launched the partnership on Friday.

As part of the launch pilot, Airbnb and GSB trained GSB officials and 29 local homestay groups, including the participants of GSB’s ‘Smart Homestay 2018 Competition’, which recognised outstanding homestays in different provinces across Thailand.

The partnership will support local sustainable tourism while diversifying income distribution to communities across Thailand, in alignment with the Thai Government’s initiative to drive local economic growth in secondary cities through tourism. Specifically, both GSB and Airbnb pledged to expand business opportunities for Thai hospitality micro-entrepreneurs to help generate income for local communities.

GSB will provide a special loan package – providing grassroots customers with smaller, flexible loans – to hospitality micro-entrepreneurs who meet the Bank’s requirements. Airbnb will conduct a series of train-the-trainer model capacity building sessions to equip GSB officials with the skills to navigate and utilise Airbnb’s global platform efficiently, and cascade this knowledge to homestay owners under GSB’s programmes.

On Friday, participants took part in a series of sharing sessions about Thai tourism and its opportunities, as well as an Airbnb host onboarding and activation workshop for homestay owners. The high-speed fiber optic Internet for the workshop was provided by state-owned telecommunications company TOT Public Company Limited.

Airbnb Superhost, Nitaya Laisuwan, who hosts in a homestay in Bangkok, also shared her personal story and best practices. The passionate host and mother of two is a full-time English teacher who welcomes guests in her 4th generation traditional Thai wooden home, located by Bangkok’s Chao Praya river.

A press release on Friday said that through the partnership, GSB will help ensure better funding for hospitality entrepreneurs by providing flexible-interest rate loans and instalment plans.

Airbnb will work with GSB to help build capacity through hospitality and hosting training while connecting homestay owners to its worldwide platform and marketplace network of over 500 million guests.

Dr. Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, GSB President and CEO, and Mike Orgill, Airbnb General Manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, jointly launched the partnership on Friday.

As part of the launch pilot, Airbnb and GSB trained GSB officials and 29 local homestay groups, including the participants of GSB’s ‘Smart Homestay 2018 Competition’, which recognised outstanding homestays in different provinces across Thailand.

The partnership will support local sustainable tourism while diversifying income distribution to communities across Thailand, in alignment with the Thai Government’s initiative to drive local economic growth in secondary cities through tourism. Specifically, both GSB and Airbnb pledged to expand business opportunities for Thai hospitality micro-entrepreneurs to help generate income for local communities.

GSB will provide a special loan package – providing grassroots customers with smaller, flexible loans – to hospitality micro-entrepreneurs who meet the Bank’s requirements. Airbnb will conduct a series of train-the-trainer model capacity building sessions to equip GSB officials with the skills to navigate and utilise Airbnb’s global platform efficiently, and cascade this knowledge to homestay owners under GSB’s programmes.

On Friday, participants took part in a series of sharing sessions about Thai tourism and its opportunities, as well as an Airbnb host onboarding and activation workshop for homestay owners. The high-speed fiber optic Internet for the workshop was provided by state-owned telecommunications company TOT Public Company Limited.

Airbnb Superhost, Nitaya Laisuwan, who hosts in a homestay in Bangkok, also shared her personal story and best practices. The passionate host and mother of two is a full-time English teacher who welcomes guests in her 4th generation traditional Thai wooden home, located by Bangkok’s Chao Praya river.