The business symposium “Opportunities in Five Key Business Sectors in Thailand” on 4 May 2011 attracted good response from the business community in Singapore. Held in Singapore by the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), in collaboration with the Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore Manufacturers’ Association, the event aims to promote business opportunities offered through Thailand’s five key trade fairs, namely, BIG&BIH, Metalex, Propak Asia, Renewable Energy Asia and VIV Asia. These trade fairs are indeed star events of the region as exhibition space for some of them have already been sold out, yet members of the audience were still pleading for more space to take part as exhibitors.

While certain exhibition space may be sold out, TCEB and the respective trade fair organizers are all out to attract more trade visitors to the shows. MICEreview spoke to TCEB’s President, Mr Akapol Sorasuchart, and its Director of Exhibitions, Mrs Supawan Teerarat, for an update on Thailand’s exhibition sector and MICE industry in general.

What is the objective of today’s symposium?

TCEB supports Thailand’s exhibition sector under its “Better the Best” campaign through marketing and visitor promotion. Today’s symposium is a joint visitor promotion with the organizers of the five champion international trade fairs in Thailand. However incentives and rewards application does not make a distinction between visitor and exhibitor as the ultimate goal is to attract more overseas trade visitors to participate in tradeshows in Thailand. These include the Extra Night, Extra Smiles campaign [click here for details], and the Hundred-a-Head campaign [click here for details].

I noted there are rewards and incentive schemes such as the “$100-a-head” package to attract visitors to these exhibitions. But our sources feedback that it is not always easy to meet all criteria, especially when the beneficiaries are limited to associations and licensed travel agents. This criterion excludes many event managers and corporates, who may want to coincide their own meetings with relevant exhibitions held in Thailand. Why is this so?

We are a non-profit organisation and had to follow certain regulations that were set when these incentive schemes were planned. Having said that, we do offer other incentive package for holding meetings in Thailand under TCEB’s Meetings Division. We have not come across any case of a meeting coinciding with one of these main exhibition, but our Exhibitions and Meetings divisions may come together and work out something on a case by case basis.

Many rising MICE cities are now targeting mega events such as World Expo, F1 race etc to boost their respective MICE industry. Subsidies and incentives may veer towards organizers of these mega events.  This is also likely to push up hotel prices and squeeze availability of venue space. Will this alienate small to mid-sized business conferences, exhibitions and corporate events?

I don’t think so. In Thailand’s case, we have identified an area just outside Bangkok to develop as the World Expo site if we are successful in our bid to host the expo in 2020. Similarly, we are also exploring the possibility of developing a site outside Bangkok for Formula One races. New hotels and infrastructure will be build around these sites, hence there will be no issue of smaller events being squeezed out due to price or availability. In fact, with these all new facilities, hotel and venue prices may be even more competitive.

Apart from Bangkok, we are also developing new convention centres in Chiangmai and Phuket to cater to growing demands from the MICE market.

Thailand is a great MICE country without a doubt. However, most of its problems are political and beyond the control of TCEB.  In 2008, MICEreview praises how TCEB and other Thai authorities helped protect the interests of MICE event organizers and participants amidst the political crisis (please click here to refer to our previous interviews with TCEB). Since then, has there been extra measures to assure or even insure event organizers should unforeseen circumstances arise?

We do have additional measures to ensure the security of tourists and trade show visitors, and we work with event organizers on a case by case basis to insure against unforeseen circumstances. However, I think Thailand has come a long way since the protests and demonstrations of 2008. Thailand is a democratic country and there will be different voices, but people have learned that closing down airports and facilities is not the way to achieve their objectives.  Prime Minister Mr Abhisit has called for elections in June, and this is an indication that all parties are now calm and situation is back to normal.

MICEreview thanks Mr Akapol and Mrs Supawan for the interview.