Thai Foodie Map 2.0 with Booking.com and Tourism Authority of Thailand

Tourism drives about 7.25% of Thailand's GDP, yet more than 60% of tourists visit only the primary cities, leaving secondary destinations to miss out on the economic benefit. The tension Vero worked from was that travellers say they want to immerse themselves in local culture, 86% of Thai tourists in Booking.com's survey, but most never leave Bangkok and Chiang Mai where that immersion is shallowest. Booking.com research also found 78% of Thai travellers are more interested than before in where a destination's must-taste dishes come from, pointing to food as the lever that could move where people actually go.

For year two of the #ExploreThaiTaste programme, Vero, Booking.com and the Tourism Authority of Thailand built Thai Foodie Map 2.0, a guidebook of 40 hand-picked local restaurants across eight provinces, Sukhothai, Uttaradit, Nakhon Phanom, Surin, Nakhon Nayok, Suphan Buri, Chumphon and Satun, each paired with nearby attractions so a single meal becomes a plannable itinerary. It launched via a Bangkok press announcement on 4 October 2024, with the public-private structure letting a commercial brand ride a national tourism agenda credibly.

The premise held because a map of named restaurants turns a policy goal, dispersing tourism, into something a traveller can act on the same day, and the strongest signal was renewal: an expanded second year after Vero reports year one earned strong stakeholder feedback and a PRCA Thailand Purpose Award. No performance figures for year two have been published, Vero's agency role is documented only on its own site, and the client's press materials confirm the campaign but credit no agency.