TCEB and THAI Form Marketing Collaboration Attracting MICE Travellers from Asia & Europe

The target is quality meeting and incentive travellers from Asia and Europe. The two parties expect the collaboration will attract at least 500,000 travellers and generate 33 billion baht in revenue.

The collaboration between TCEB and THAI is aimed at promoting Thailand as a preferred meeting and incentive travel (MI) destination, both quantitatively and qualitatively, for corporate markets and, thus, driving the national economy along with the development of the MI sector. The two parties will involve in joint marketing to create new business opportunities and international markets.

Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, President of Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), stated that “TCEB and THAI will join hands to promote MICE industry in 2023. We will focus first on the overseas market of meetings and incentive travel. This sector has been a huge market source of travellers for Thailand since the middle of this year. Our targets are both short-haul market in the Asia Pacific region and long-haul one in Europe. The particular focus is the markets where THAI and THAI Smile Airways operate flight services, for example, Europe, India, Australia, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. The collaboration will also entail forming partnerships to support other key MICE events. It is expected that the collaboration will create confidence and incentives and make it easier for travellers to choose Thailand”.

Korakot Chatasingha, THAI Chief Commercial Officer, stated that “THAI and TCEB are preparing next year’s plan to boost and promote Thailand as a meeting destination for corporate clients. It will build confidence and trust among MICE travellers in selecting Thailand because the services of THAI and THAI Smile Airways are covering global routes due to their Star Alliance network. This means more convenience for holding meetings in Thailand. In order that THAI and TCEB are aligned with each other in travel promotion, a collaboration deal has been signed today to promote and support MICE industry in 2023”.

In this connection, TCEB and THAI will be involved in pro-active marketing activities whether they are trade shows and road shows in key markets or other kinds of activities throughout 2023. The major global trade shows for meetings and incentive travel sector are IMEX Frankfurt 2023 in May in Germany, IT&CM Asia and CTW Asia-Pacific 2023 in September in Thailand, IMEX America 2023 in October in the US and IBTM World 2023 in November in Spain.

For the road shows, the first target is the CLMV group comprising Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. These markets, particularly Cambodia and Vietnam, show signs of a speedy recovery. In response to the assessment of the potential market conducted jointly with industry stakeholders, it is found that Australia is a high-spending market, thus, the planned road shows in Sydney and Melbourne in May.

More proactive marketing activities are in the pipeline for TCEB overseas representatives to tap into India, Singapore, Europe and UK, while plans for China are prepared for immediate action once the circumstances permit. Currently, TCEB has overseas representatives in 7 potential markets – Australia, UK and Europe, North America, India, Singapore, Japan and China. Sale calls and business networking activities are undertaken to keep the clients in these markets updated on Thailand.

TCEB and THAI are confident that the collaboration will help revive the meetings and incentive travel markets to achieve 60% growth when compared to the year 2019. Based on the projected growth figure, an estimated 500,000 travellers generating 33 billion baht in revenue is expected. In line with the prospect, TCEB and THAI are designing new campaigns for 2023 to help speed up Thai MICE industry to return to normalcy as soon as possible.