V Guide: A Travel Planner Web Application for the Thai Tourism Community

Abstract

Tourism has been one of the key drivers of Thai economy. Thailand remains one of the most desirable travel destinations in the world. Due to the global economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic affecting Thai tourism, foreign and Thai tourists who are interested in travelling in Thailand encounter some difficulties and waste a lot of time in planning trips using existing websites and applications. To alleviate these problems, this research project proposes the design and development of a travel planner web application for the Thai tourism community, named 'V Guide'. The target users of this application are both foreign and Thai tourists. The V Guide application provides several helpful features for users to plan their trips. The V Guide application offers trip recommendation of the topmost visited cities in Thailand including attractions, accommodations, restaurants, and festivals. Besides, the V Guide application allows users to create various travel programs, find reviews for travel ideas, share travel plans and reviews with the community, and manage user profile and trip plans. The ultimate goal of this research project is to establish a new Thai tourism community that can help stimulating and sustaining the Thai economy.