THAILAND
The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has unveiled 'Thailand CONNECT', a global marketing campaign designed to make it easier for corporate buyers and meetings organizers to sell Thailand as a premier MICE destination.
The campaign will focus on three themes—diversity of Thai destinations, unrivalled business opportunities, and the high quality of Thailand’s MICE professionals—and is accompanied by a number of specific promotional packages that will extend financial support to MICE events and delegates attending MICE events in Thailand, depending on their country of origin and duration.
Nopparat Maythaveekulchai, TCEB’s President, said that the new CONNECT campaign is designed to help Thailand achieve a 2014 target of 987,000 MICE visitors from abroad, with revenues projected at 96.9 billion baht (US$3.2 billion), up respective 5% and 10% over the figures projected for 2013. It will help TCEB enhance the global visibility of the Thailand brand as part of the Five-Year Master Plan (2012-2016) and its three key strategies - WIN, PROMOTE and DEVELOP.
“The key word here is CONNECT. We believe that Thailand can ‘connect’ extremely well with global buyers by offering a combined package of three Unique Selling Propositions,” Mr. Nopparat said. These USPs are, according to Nopparat:
1. Diversity of Destinations. Thailand’s strategic location at the heart of Asia, together with convenient facilities and infrastructure, offer visitors an extensive choice of venues covering five ‘MICE Cities’ (Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen). Six international airports connect to 190 destinations worldwide with over 500 flights per day. Nine conference and exhibition venues offer a combined total exhibition space of 222,984 square meters.
2. Unrivaled Business Opportunities. ASEAN’s second largest economy is poised to play a leading role in the forthcoming unified regional market of the ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC in 2015. Economic integration will remove trade barriers and bring free transfer of goods, services, skilled labor, trade and investment amongst the ASEAN population of almost 600 million. Thailand is a production and export base for key industries such as automotive and industrial components, computers and IT, energy, rubber and plastics.
3. High Quality Professionals. In addition to its legendary hospitality and quality of service, Thailand’s MICE industry has led the world in setting global standards and winning numerous global accolades and awards. ICCA ranked Thailand as worldwide No. 1 by number of international meetings, while UFI ranked Thailand No. 1 by number of international exhibitions.
Said Nopparat, "The MICE industry has always played a key role in driving the broader economy, earning revenues of approximately 80 billion baht or about 2.66 billion U.S. dollars per year.”
During the 2013 fiscal year, from October 2012 to August 2013, Thailand welcomed 993,072 MICE travelers, with revenues of over 86,280 billion baht (US$ 2.87 billion). Top MICE visitors were from the conventions industry (318,663 visitors), followed by incentives travelers (247,888 visitors), corporate meetings (237,701 visitors) and exhibitions (188,820 visitors).
