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Chaophya Park expands MICE facilities to meet local Bangkok demand
Andrew Wood
Never to stand still the Chaophya Park has just added 5 new
function rooms in the hotel’s purpose designed meeting centre located
just off the hotel’s lobby.
 Andrew
Wood
Remarking on this new development, Andrew Wood the hotel’s general
manager, said “We felt now is a good time to invest back into the
business.
“Many companies are buying back their own stocks and shares during the
economic downturn while share prices are low.
“We instead take a more operational view and invest in expanding our
product line up to help our marketing effort,” he said.
Wood added, “It became evident that the local conference & banquet and
MICE market along with our Thai Wedding market, that they were resilient
to outside global factors. In fact this business actually grew for
Chaophya Park Hotel & Resorts in the 4Q of last year.”
Wood said, “This year we expect the local MICE business to expand by at
least 15% throughout 2009 and we are making plans to meet this demand.”
Thai MICE business returning
Watchiranont Thongtep, TTG Asia
Bangkok Exhibition Services (BES) remains confident the
exhibition industry in Thailand will continue to grow this year, despite
the global financial crisis and political situation affecting the
country.
BES general manager, David Aitken, said the company’s positive outlook
came after two large exhibition events had been confirmed to be staged
in Thailand this year.
They are the 9th ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) Exhibition and
Conference 2009, to be held from November 26 to 28, and Indo-Chinak
International Energy Event, to be held from June 18 to 20, at the
Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre. About 10,000 visitors
are expected to attend each event.
Aiken added it had been confirmed that two large events staged in
Thailand last year would be staged again this year.
The 17th International Processing, Filling and Packaging Technology
Event for Asia, to be held from June 17 to 20, is expected to be
attended by 27,000 local and international visitors.
The Food and Hotel Thailand 2009, to be held from September 2 to 5, is
expected to attract about 25,000 local and international trade visitors.
Aiken said: “I expect each event to see about 15 to 20 percent growth in
terms of trade visitor numbers. We are providing the shows value-added
events such as ad hoc conferences or meetings to make them more
attractive.”
Government slow to grant financial support
Sirima Eamtako, TTG Asia
Thailand is expected to attract a total of 14 million foreign tourists
and generate about 505 billion baht this year, but the result may fall short of
expectation if the government is slow in injecting a financial support.
Association of Thai Travel Agents president, Apichart Sankary, said this year’s
tourism targets were achievable, “but under the condition that the industry
receives financial support from the government.”
To date, the government has yet to approve TAT’s proposal for a 1.9-billion baht
stimulus budget for international tourism marketing. So far, the Tourism
Authority of Thailand (TAT) has received only 450 million baht for domestic
tourism marketing.
TAT board chairman, Weerasak Kowsurat, said the projections were a result of a
consensus from the country’s travel-related public and private organizations,
following a comprehensive discussion and brainstorming on all negative and
positive factors affecting the tourism industry.
“Whether Thailand will achieve these targets or not will also depend on
cooperation from all concerned to promote inbound tourism and cooperation from
the political sector to restore tourist confidence,” he said.
When asked what were the action plans to achieve the targets, Weerasak said more
meetings were needed in the immediate future to draft out exact activities,
including the plan on co-branding, as well as co-marketing and co-participation
in road shows and trade fairs.
According to Weerasak, Thailand ended last year with 14.24 million foreign
tourists and 532 billion baht revenue, representing a drop of 1.5 percent and
2.9 percent over 2007, respectively.
“The number of foreign tourists in the first nine months of last year was above
the line on a monthly basis. If not for the occurrence of political incidents,
particularly the closure of regional airports in August and key gateways in
November, we could have met last year’s target of 15.4 million tourists,” he
said.
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