The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has rolled out JerGan (meaning “Let’s meet” in Thai), a pioneering data infrastructure and destination experience application for business events.
First deployed in March 2026 and officially launched on May 28, 2026, the platform is designed to serve as a smart concierge for business travellers while restructuring how financial benefits are distributed across the local economy.
According to TCEB data, international business events travellers spend an average of 60,000 baht (US$1,842) per trip. However, traditional industry frameworks have struggled with three critical gaps: a lack of cohesive customer data insights, a lack of designed experiences tailored specifically for business travellers outside the show floor, and an uneven distribution of revenue that leaves local businesses behind.
Speaking on the initiative, Jaruwan Suwannasat, vice president of TCEB, emphasised that JerGan is not another standard travel application or search engine.
“We wanted to find solutions that go far beyond basic digital directories. Because business travellers have distinctly different constraints regarding time and distance compared to leisure tourists, they cannot share a generic tourism supply chain. JerGan acts as a dedicated business concierge – the first touchpoint to respond to their exact needs,” noted Jaruwan.
JerGan operates as an open infrastructure designed to bridge the gap between Thailand’s business events travellers – of which there were 26 million last year – and the local ecosystem. The application integrates services from logistics and lifestyle companies like Grab, MuvMi, and LINE Man, alongside retail powerhouses including Central Group, Siam Piwat, and Ratchaprasong District.
The critical role of data integration was highlighted during an industry fireside chat at the JerGan app launch featuring Harisuda Buanyawat, director of the MICE Intelligence and Innovation department at TCEB, and Attapol Teanrausong, chairman of the sub-committee on innovation and technology for the Thai Exhibition Association.
Attapol pointed out that while the industry sits on vast troves of data, it historically has only been utilised at a surface level.
“Data is usually isolated within the boundaries of an event. Organisers might see success on the showfloor, but they lack tools to analyse visitor behaviour outside the venue,” he explained.
JerGan bridges this divide by acting as a national-level data integrator, Harisuda stated.
By blending TCEB’s data with partner ecosystems, the app tracks the journey of visitors, providing intelligent analytics with every transaction. Over time, the platform will become smarter, giving Thailand an edge with incisive analytics that can be leveraged to bid for future international events.
For business travellers, time and distance are paramount. Hence, JerGan resolves these friction points by allowing users to seamlessly locate adjacent co-working spaces, book logistics, plan where to host clients for meals immediately surrounding event centres – and even find applicable retail coupons, hot deals and concurrent events happening in the vicinity.
“Ultimately, the grand vision for JerGan is long-term sustainability and competitiveness for Thai MICE. By steering high-spending international attendees toward nearby hidden gems, local SMEs and communities can capitalise directly on massive influxes of business tourism,” Jaruwan noted.
She added: “The application is already scaling rapidly to handle world-class conventions, with upcoming deployments locked in for the IMF World Bank Group Annual Meetings and Gastech 2026.”
He brings more than 25 years of hospitality experience, having held senior leadership positions with Onyx Hospitality Group, Shangri-La and Hilton across Asia, including Thailand, Singapore, India, the Maldives and Hong Kong.
He joins from DFDS A/S, where he most recently served as vice president and head of the company’s passenger and freight business in Northern Europe.
