TCEB and Thai Airways collaborate to draw MICE travellers from Asia and Europe
Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) and Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) have signed a deal to push marketing efforts through trade shows and road shows this year. The two parties expect the collaboration to attract at least 500,000 travellers and generate 33 billion baht (USD1 billion) in revenue.
The collaboration between TCEB and THAI is aimed at promoting Thailand as a preferred meeting and incentive travel (MI) destination to drive the national economy with the development of the MI sector. Joint marketing efforts will be made to create new business opportunities in international markets.
Mr Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, President of TCEB said, “TCEB and THAI will join hands to promote the 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 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”.
Mr 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 of corporate clients. It will build confidence and trust among MICE travellers in selecting Thailand because the services of THAI and THAI Smile Airways cover global routes due to their Star Alliance network. That means more convenience for holding meetings in Thailand. So that THAI and TCEB are aligned in travel promotion, a collaboration deal has been signed today to promote and support the MICE industry in 2023”.
In this connection, TCEB and THAI will be involved in proactive marketing activities whether they are trade shows and road shows in key markets or other activities throughout 2023.
For the road shows, the first target is CLMV group comprising Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. These markets, particularly Cambodia and Vietnam, show signs of speedy recovery. In response to the assessment of the potential market conducted jointly with industry stakeholders, it was 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 the UK. At the same time, plans for China are prepared for immediate action once the circumstances permit. Currently, TCEB has overseas representatives in seven potential markets – Australia, the 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 the Thai MICE industry to return to normalcy as soon as possible.
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