Bangkok’s leading retailers outline plans for the festive season

Siam Piwat, the operator of Siam Paragon, Siam Centre, Siam Discovery and IconSiam, said the company has allocated more than 500 million baht to offer an extraordinary experience for residents and visitors to the capital.

The company’s senior executive vice president, Saruntorn Asaves, said its events would stimulate tourism, economy and people spending. She expects around 400,000-450,000 people to visit Siam Paragon, Siam Centre, Siam Discovery and IconSiam each day.

These events are expected to boost the number of foreign arrivals to 39 million people, and generate over 3.4 trillion baht in spending among Thai and foreign visitors, she added.

Siam Piwat’s events focus on offering world-class experiences and include the Bandai Spirits Hobby Exhibition 2024 at Siam Paragon and the Gunpla Builders World Cup 2024 at Siam Centre, which will feature collectibles from Japanese toy maker Bandai.

International brands are also slated to open flagship and pop-up stores in Thailand, with fashion brands Miu Miu and Valentino, and Japanese video game developer Nintendo bringing their goodies to Siam Paragon.

IconSiam managing director Supoj Chaiwatsirikul said the company has allocated over 300 million baht to organise over 60 events during the high tourism season, among them a Loy Krathong event in mid-November to promote Thailand’s soft power internationally.

The “Amazing Thailand Countdown - Iconic Celebration of Thai-Global Phenomena” will feature international artists to promote IconSiam as a global destination for the New Year festival, he said, adding that all the planned events would increase the number of visitors at the shopping mall by 20% year on year.

The Mall Group, an operator of The Mall Lifestore, Emporium, Emquartier and Emsphere, said it has prepared a range of events that will launch weekly for the remainder of this year. They include a Halloween campaign, Bangkok No 1 Shopping Festival and New Year countdown festival.

Although sales in the previous three quarters were only moderate due to decreased spending and the gloomy economic situation, the company’s chief marketing officer Voralak Tulaphorn expects the upcoming events to boost fourth-quarter sales by 15% year on year.

She noted that the company is paying attention to holding events to make customers feel happy, saying that customers do not want 50-80% discounts on products all the time.

For its part, Central Pattana has come up with marketing campaigns and mega magnet events to stimulate the economy and promote Thailand as a world-class destination.

The company’s chief marketing officer Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana said its events focus on promoting Thailand’s soft power and domestic tourism, such as a Christmas festival in collaboration with the Embassy of Finland and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

He said the “centralwOrld Bangkok Countdown 2025”, at CentralWorld shopping mall will feature artists and activities to celebrate the New Year festival. He added that similar events will be held at over 40 Central branches nationwide.

Nattakit expects these events to boost the fourth quarter sales, attract Thai and foreign travellers to shopping malls, and stimulate both spending and the Thai economy.

Nath Vongphanich, president of the Thai Retailers Association, said the association has proposed reviving the “Shop Dee Mee Kuen” (Shop and Payback) scheme to stimulate the economy towards the end of the year.

He expects the scheme, which offers a tax deduction of up to 50,000 baht, to benefit small and medium enterprises, to generate more than 100 billion baht.