Thailand Connects to Global MICE Market

TCEB’s President, Mr Nopparat Maythaveekulchai

During the busy IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific conference held in the Bangkok Convention Centre (BCC) at CentralWorld, much was made of the ‘Thailand CONNECT’ promotion and its focus as a global marketing campaign designed, we were told, to make it easier for corporate buyers and meetings organisers to sell Thailand as a premier MICE destination.

Mr Nopparat Maythaveekulchai, TCEB‘s President, reminded participants that Bangkok was ideally placed within the geography of the ASEAN community to serve as a ‘hub’ for meetings and conferences and with the forthcoming introduction of the high speed rail link. This will be particularly so when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) becomes effective from 2015, further reinforcing Bangkok’s ideally central location.

“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.

Those propositions are briefly:

Diversity of Destinations. Featuring Thailand’s five key ‘MICE Cities’ (Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen). Six international airports connect to 190 destinations worldwide with over 500 flights per day, feeding the nine exhibition venues with 222,984 square meters of useable space.

Unrivalled Business Opportunities. Based on the strength of Thailand’s economy (second in ASEAN), the new AEC will remove trade barriers and bring free transfer of goods, services, skilled labor, trade and investment to the combined population of almost 600 million. Thailand also has free trade agreements with a further 11 countries.

High Quality Professionals. Beyond Thailand’s famous hospitality, the MICE industry follows closely with award-winning standards. The ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) ranked Thailand as worldwide No. 1 by number of international meetings, while UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) ranked Thailand No. 1 by number of international exhibitions.

“The MICE industry has always played a key role in driving the broader economy, earning revenues of approximately 80 billion baht or about US$ 2.66 billion per year. I believe that the Thailand CONNECT campaign, as well as our many other market promotion activities will help drive further MICE sector growth,” said Mr Nopparat.

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) is, from October 21, introducing the ‘Thailand CONNECT’ brand in the US market.