Bangkok. The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) announced the performance of Thailand’s MICE Industry for the fiscal year 2013, revealing that the sector had exceeded its targets both in terms of visitor numbers and industry earnings. TCEB also disclosed its ambitious 2014 Strategic Plan, which is synthesized with the ‘Thailand New Growth Model’ under the National Economic and Social Development Plan. Targeting key high-quality markets, the plan aims to boost the ‘Thailand Brand’ as Asia’s premiere MICE destination and highlights three main pillars of Thailand’s MICE industry consisting of (1) Destination; (2) Business; and (3) People. Together with TCEB’s unique ‘3C’s’ approach – Co-creation, Customisation and Creativity, the bureau aims to boost 2014 revenues by 10% to 96.9 billion baht.
Mr Nopparat Maythaveekulchai, TCEB’s President, disclosed that “Our efforts to drive the MICE sector in collaboration with all other stakeholders from both the public and private sectors have borne fruit. Thailand’s MICE sector comprises three main industry categories: corporate meetings (25% market share), incentive travel (24%), international conventions (33%) and international exhibitions and trade fairs (18%). In all, this year we have welcomed a total of 1,013,502 overseas MICE visitors, up 13.21% compared with 2012. In revenue terms, earnings were also up by 10.93% to 88.485 billion baht, surpassing our annual targets for both numbers and industry earnings. Asia was our largest source of MICE visitors, representing 75.25% of all MICE visitors, followed by Europe, with 10.06%, and USA, with 4.72%. The top five countries were China, India, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore.”
For the 2014 fiscal year, TCEB has been allocated a budget of 880 million Baht to drive the country’s MICE sector under the 2012-2016 MICE Industry Master Plan, with the following key strategic goals:
1. Maintain existing markets, and open up new markets
2. Promote Thai MICE as ‘Top of Mind’ in Asia
3. Differentiate and add value through the Creative Economy approach
4. Build strong networks and alliances both domestically and internationally
5. Enhance TCEB’s organizational role and capacity
With these goals in mind, TCEB’s 2014 Vision is to ‘elevate Thailand’s MICE sector and moves towards high quality markets’, integrating with ‘Thailand New Growth Model’ under the National Economic and Social Development Plan. Aiming to attract more MICE events to Thailand and elevate Thailand’s reputation for excellence as a quality Asian MICE destination, the 2014 Strategic Plan incorporates recommendations from the private sector, and takes into account the latest global trends affecting Thailand’s overall economic growth as well as its MICE and tourism sectors.
