How local giants, government super-apps, and sky-high AI enthusiasm are reshaping how Thais book their trips
Thailand’s digital economy hit $56 billion in 2025 and is on track for $90 billion by 2030, but online travel growth actually cooled off – up just 6% YoY to $11 billion after a 34% jump in 2024. Still, the country punches above its weight regionally, accounting for 28% of Southeast Asia’s total gross travel bookings. And Thais are all-in on AI. Booking.com found 98% of Thai respondents excited about it, ChatGPT’s local weekly users have quadrupled in a year, and Microsoft clocked Thailand as having the second-fastest AI adoption growth rate globally.
Our latest Online Travel Tracker: Travel, Tech, Thailand finds that AI enthusiasm isn’t just consumer hype, it’s showing up in serious infrastructure bets. Microsoft is pouring over $1 billion into cloud and AI data centers in Thailand over the next two years, Google Cloud launched a national agentic-AI program, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has built its own GPT-powered travel assistant. Meanwhile Booking.com and Agoda remain the go-to OTAs (Agoda just opened a new tech hub in Bangkok housing 4,000 employees), and the government is pushing its own apps – TAGTHAi and a revamped Amazing Thailand app – complete with AI chatbots, VAT refund tools, and even an SOS button linked to the Tourist Police.
Beyond the obvious players, there’s a whole ecosystem of local startups and travel-adjacent apps carving out niches, from community tourism platforms like Local Alike to super-apps like LINE and Grab expanding into hotel bookings and curated experiences. Only a fraction of Thailand’s 177 travel startups have real funding, which says a lot about where the money and momentum are actually concentrated.
The full report breaks down all these players, the funding landscape, and where the real opportunities sit.
