MICE revenue on target, bureau says
THE THAILAND Convention and Exhibition Bureau is still optimistic about the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions industry in the remaining months and confident in achieving its targets of 940,999 MICE travellers and Bt88 billion MICE revenue.
In the last three quarters to June, the number of MICE travellers rose 12.04 per cent to 747,072, spending Bt64.33 billion.
Nopparat Maythaveekulchai, president of the TCEB, said yesterday that the results for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ending next month would be driven by a more aggressive marketing strategy.
The TCEB will keep its focus on the Asean market. It will look for high-potential markets in this region through partners. For the conventions business, it will maintain its existing market via awareness campaigns and expand to major markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Australia.
It will work with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to introduce its services in new markets including Coimbatore and Mangalore in India, Danang in Vietnam and Auckland in New Zealand. For international exhibitions, it will continue to launch marketing activities in Asean countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam as well as in Japan, India and China. Awareness will be promoted more in high-potential markets including France, Indonesia, Britain and Myanmar.
During the past three quarters, the international convention business contributed the most MICE travellers at 223,463, or 29.91 per cent of the total, with revenue of Bt22.10 billion. The incentives segment gained 196,088 travellers, or 26.25 per cent of the total, with Bt12.5 billion in revenue.
Business meets
Corporate meetings gained 174,701 travellers, or 23.38 per cent, with Bt18.18 billion, while international exhibitions attracted 152,820 travellers or 20.46 per cent with Bt11.52 billion in revenue.
The Asian MICE market had the highest market penetration at 72.69 per cent, with 543,016 travellers spending Bt46.76 billion.
European and North American markets showed obvious signs of recovery. During the period, 83,772 European MICE travellers visited Thailand and spent Bt7.21 billion, while 43,165 American MICE travellers spent Bt3.71 billion.
