BANGKOK, 19 March 2025: Founded on 9 September 1999, the Asian Trails Group has pioneered cutting-edge travel content and services in Asia for 25 years. To mark its silver anniversary in 2025, it is expanding its digital business in Asia.
One of the founding team members, Asian Trails’ product manager Surapon Vutivakinsakul, posted a Facebook reminisce last week about the ever-changing technology that has kept the company’s international tour operators and partners in the loop. It illustrates the fast-changing technology that shaped the destination management company’s endeavours to showcase travel content and services over the past 25 years — from analogue to digital space amidst a whirlwind of global challenges and disruptions.
Annual tariff: From print to cloud
“A journey through time with Asian Trails — adapting, evolving, and embracing changes. Each tariff reflects a different era, from the first print hardcopy in 1999 to CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, and the cloud. Grateful to have been part of this transformation and the journey it represents,” Surapon posted.
The journey continues with twists and turns in AI and cloud technology innovations. Last month, Asian Trails announced the launch of a “new eCommerce department aimed at taking operations to the next level in the digital space.”
This specialised unit was created in response to the rapid growth of the company’s eCommerce activities over the past two years.
Marc Albert, a Swiss-Thai national and former Managing Director of Asian Trails Thailand, has been named Group Managing Director of eCommerce & Sourcing for Asia. He will lead the group’s efforts to boost sales for partners and their global customers through the company’s innovative eConnect B2B portal and API (Application Programming Interface), which allows different software applications to communicate and exchange data).
Keeping the Myanmar team busy
Asian Trails’ cloud-based system landscape has enabled its teams to perform their tasks remotely. For example, its Myanmar team, currently not involved in mainstream travel operations due to the ongoing political conflict, has been trained in loading data for experiences, accommodation, and transfers on behalf of all Asian Trails country offices without redundancies or pay cuts.
For the full story on the Asian Trails eCommerce initiative, read Advancing Asian Trails’ eCommerce.
