Puripan Bunnag, Thailand Convention & Exhibition
Bureau’s director of domestic MICE.
Urasin Khantaraphan
Pattaya-area hotel general managers brainstormed how to revive Pattaya’s
business-meeting sector at a summit at the Royal Cliff Hotels Group’s PEACH
convention center.
Puripan Bunnag, the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau’s director of
domestic meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions, outlined the
bureau’s new “D-MICE” initiative to spur growth in business meetings without
looking overseas.
He said the TCEB supports many organizations and companies involved in event
planning, venue management, transportation, tourist attractions and service
providers and will bring all of them together under D-MICE.
Puripan said the 2013 International Congress & Conversion Association ranked
Thailand’s MICE capabilities and readiness sixth in Asia behind Japan, China,
South Korea, Australia and Singapore.
But he noted that Thailand has the capability of not only seeking international
MICE customers, but domestic business-meeting planners as well. That’s where the
real opportunity lies, Puripan said.
International MICE market-share gains depend largely on the international
economy while success domestically depends on the industry’s image and its
services and goods on offer, he said.
The objectives and expectations of D-MICE are strategies to boost the economy
for long-term contributions to the country in economic revival and encouraging
trade, Puripan concluded.
