Thailand to use game to promote tourism

Bangkok – Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol has announced that popular tourist destinations in secondary provinces in the country will be proposed as scenes in Gravity's hit mobile game Ragnarok Origin.

Sudawan said one of the provinces will be Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya as it has beautiful places including World Heritage sites and a strong cultural identity.

Ragnarok Origin (ROO) is a mobile game and a sequel to the iconic multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ragnarok Online (RO) created by Gravity – a game developer from the Republic of Korea. RO attracted more than 50 million players worldwide during its peak.

Sudawan's remarks came after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin recently met the management of Gravity Game Tech, Gravity's wholly-owned subsidiary in Thailand, to listen to the company's plan to choose Thailand as one of the three countries that will have real places featured in the new version of ROO due for release by the year's end.

Srettha asked the company to add the muay Thai shorts, headband and Thai war elephants as items in the game, a move that Sudawan said will help promote Thai cultural heritage.

The Thai minister added that the collaboration aims to attract millions of gamers worldwide to spend their holidays in Thailand and see the physical places that are promoted in the game.

The rising debts of households in Thailand have prompted financial institutes to employ stricter criteria in granting auto loans, resulting in the automotive industry's production and sales down in January compared to the same period last year, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI)’s Automotive Industry Club.