Thailand’s MICE-industry: useful and pleasant

Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Southeast Asia. The country attracts tourists from all over the world due to its mild climate, peculiar cuisine, great shopping facilities and the famous art of massage, of course. Thailand’s MICE and business tourism facilities are highlighted by Viktor Spisak, general manager in Sayama Travel Group, ABT’s new partner.

— Viktor, in 2010 «Believe in Thailand» program was launched. What results have you achieved since then?

— You are right, 3 years ago Thailand Congress and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), Tourism Authority of Thailand together with Thai Airways International airline and other government agencies launched a promotional campaign «Believe in Thailand». It was aimed at promoting our country’s facilities in the field of international events. The focus was on professional service, well-developed infrastructure, a wide choice of venues suitable for business events and business development opportunities. And the campaign has yielded great results. In 2008 MICE-industry attracted a little more than 720 000 business travellers and in 2011 their number amounted to almost 800 000. And this was achieved despite political and economic difficulties of the past years. The amount of money business travellers spend in our country also grows. For the past few years daily expenditure per person has grown from 350 to 863 USD. At the same time the spend growth does not mean high inflation: in 2011 Thailand was included into top 10 countries with the lowest inflation in the world. It is rather a sign of a wider range of services, of their higher quality and of infrastructure development.

— What events have been conducted in Thailand with the support of state authorities to attract business travellers?

— Tourist agencies of our country initiate and carry out a lot of successful projects. One of them is aimed at promoting Thailand in general, others — at making popular some of its provinces and regions. You can hardly single out measures aimed at MICE-promotion only: as a rule, such campaigns highlight different aspects of this beautiful country. The most remarkable of the recent events were: «With Love to Art» festival in Ratchaburi province, promotional campaign «Nakhon Si Awesome» in Nakhon Si Thamarrat and «From Thai spective». The latter was the most interesting, I suppose: it gave the opportunity to see the country through its inhabitants` eyes. In December 2012 Thailand for the first time hosted the world «Miss Tourism» beauty contest.

— What is the share of business travellers in overall incoming tourist traffic? How many of them are from Russia?

— The data for 2012 announced by Kingdom of Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports have surpassed even the most optimistic expectations! 22 million 303 thousand tourists from all over the world visited our country, and this number surpasses 2011 data by 16%. The number of business tourists has reached 895.2 thousand, which also exceeds plans, announced by TCEB. We had more than 1 million 317 thousand tourists from Russia — this figure exceeds 2011 data by 25%. Let me stress, that 20% of guests from your country came to Thailand on business. Our prediction for 2013 is some 24.5 million foreign tourists.

— What do you consider to be Thailand’s main MICE advantages in comparison with other regions of Southeast Asia?

— Thailand is a very authentic country. It is a flawless leader in SPA-industry, which receives lots of prestigious awards every year. They include both Asia Spa Awards and World Travel Awards. It’s my true belief that such a wide range of beauty and health services is Thailand’s important factor of MICE-development. You know, it is a good opportunity for business travellers to combine the useful with the pleasant. Especially, as there are lots of «useful» things in this country. It refers to comprehensive accommodation facilities, conference halls, airport and transport infrastructure, and it is a good ground for events, various competitions and teambuilding. And finally — attractive prices, perhaps, the lowest on the market of Southeast Asia

— Tell us about Thailand’s facilities for conferences, forums, congresses and exhibitions? What cities and hotels are the most popular with business travellers?

— The most popular destination is Bangkok, of course. Overall surface of exhibition complexes in the capital exceeds 400 thousand square meters, and there are 76 five star hotels for MICE-events. The main venues include Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC), IMPACT Arena Exhibition and Convention Center and Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC). The second popular destination in our rating is Pattaya with its largest exhibition centre in our country — Pattaya Exhibition & Convention Hall. Phuket and Hua Hin are more suitable for seminars and workshops with a smaller number of participants. There are no large exhibition halls there, but there are lots of hotels that provide the highest level of services.

Business travel industry has been advancing in the north of our country for the last few years. Auyttaya, the administrative centre of the cognominal province approximately 80 km away from Bangkok, is one of five official candidates for International Universal Exposition EXPO-2020.

Thailand’s «Northern Palmyra», Chiang Mai, is getting more and more popular. We are going to open here a new world class exhibition center in March this year. Its territory of about 52 hectares includes several exhibition, concert and conference halls, restaurants and hotels for a total of 10000 guests.

— What annual business events attract most business travellers to Thailand?

— In Thailand thousands of various international fairs take place: from gardening, furniture, clothing or food production to machine engineering, logistics and education. Besides, our country is getting more and more popular as a venue for all kinds of conferences, symposiums and summits. For instance, in 2013 we are going to hold the XXI International Conference of the International Union for Health Promotion and Health Education, 51st Bangkok Gems and Jewelry Fair and Support Technical Consultancy Development Programme for Asia & Pacific. I suppose, these events will be interesting for foreign business travellers, including those from Russia.

— Thailand is a popular destination for incentive tourism. Tell us about the most vivid festivals, holidays and shows your country is famous for.

— Thailand is one of the world leaders in the number of holidays and festivals — national as well as local. Even the most moderate of them always include folk festivals, fairs, concerts and bright shows. Of course, the most popular are Songkhran (Thai New Year), which is celebrated on April 13th, and Loy Krathong (the day when the goddess of water and light is worshipped).

At Songkhran everyone pours water on each other and the fun is exuberant. Loy Krathong is one of the most beautiful and romantic holidays. Late at night the Thai heave off ships in the form of a lotus with candles, fragrances and flowers and release thousands of lanterns. The sight is fantastic.

But of course the list of festivals is not confined to these two. Sayama MICE composes a calendar of holidays and other important business, cultural and sport events in Thailand, provides information about interesting upcoming events in social networks. We help tourists plan their visit to Thailand and get familiar with its rich and diverse culture.

— Your company is famous for original scenarios of adventure tours and exclusive teambuilding and incentive programs. Could you please give examples of the most interesting events?

— We do work out and implement exciting adventure tours, corporate teambuilding and incentive programs in Thailand. In this season we have announced a new scenario for corporate customers — «Life of a Hippie». It is aimed at drawing the staff together and developing creative ways of problem solving. At first all participants are divided into groups — communes — and each group starts building its own small hippie island. It should include everything that real «flower children» might need for their carefree life. Members of each commune must share responsibilities and then demonstrate one day of their life to other participants. The program includes lots of tasks and cooperative games and after it is finished the participants get a film as a souvenir.

— In your opinion, what are the prospects of cooperation with ABT? Do you plan special actions or programs aimed at promoting business travel in Thailand on the Russian market?

— We are positive about future cooperation of ABT, Sayama MICE and Thai tourism authorities (TCEB, TAT). It is especially important if we take into account the incoming corporate travel traffic from Russia as well as Thailand’s growing facilities for business travellers.

We plan lots of events in cooperation with Thailand’s tourism authorities in order to attract corporate buyers from Russia. The events include info tours for project organizers and coordinators, road shows, various exhibitions and workshops in Russia with the participation of Thai MICE-hotels. We plan to issue industry-specific electronic and paper publications. We hope ABT will participate in these projects.

Many people ask me: why should we believe in Thailand, after all? If all my arguments are not enough, I can say: perhaps, because more than 20 million guests from all over the world do this every year.

Svetlana Denikina