Siam Paragon sees full rebound in Q1 of 2012
Siam Paragon, a leading shopping mall in downtown Bangkok, expects a full rebound in consumer spending in the first quarter of next year, executive chief marketing officer Kriengsak Tantiphipop said.
He explained that average sales at the shopping centre had dropped significantly because of the recent flood crisis. In October alone the mall encountered a 10-per-cent slump in sales and it suffered a further decline in November.
“During that period we found that the number of foreign customers had dropped dramatically, especially tourists from Hong Kong and Singapore, as they stayed away because of the flooding. The proportion of foreigners plunged from 30 per cent of total shoppers to just 20 per cent,” he said.
However, Kriengsak added that sales and the number of shoppers had rebounded to nearly normal this month and that the number of foreign visitors was rising gradually. “We expect our turnover actually to increase by about 10 per cent this year despite the floods,” he said.
Kriengsak added that consumers’ spending, which had slowed during the flood crisis, should have fully recovered by the first quarter of 2012.
The government has been injecting a lot of cash to stimulate the economy and is also spending on basic infrastructure projects as well as flood-prevention systems. Many private firms, such as those in insurance and finance, are also investing a lot in their campaigns, which is stimulating the overall economy and bringing strong cash flow to the market. Gross domestic product is expected to rise by between 4.5 and 5 per cent next year.
