Thai’s myriad MICE offerings
Nitin Sachdeva, Director-India Representative Office, TCEB, shares the lucrative MICE offerings that Thailand has for Indian MICE travellers
How was the year 2016 for you vis-e-vie 2015. How have the first six months of 2017 been for you?
Currently, the MICE sector comprises four main industry categories namely, corporate meetings (25 per cent market share), incentive travel (24 per cent), international conventions (33 per cent) and international exhibitions and trade fairs (18 per cent).
In the 2016 fiscal year (Oct'15-Sep'16), Thailand's business events industry earned 102.5 billion baht (Euro 3.8 million) in revenues, 6.90 per cent up from the revenue in 2015. Thailand welcomed 1,268,560 business event travellers, attracted by Thailand's endless choice of vibrant business destinations, global standards of service, and diverse business opportunities.
The number of business travellers is up to 15.75 per cent from the number in 2015. Asia is Thailand's largest source of business events travellers, especially China which is the top source market arriving in Thailand.
Can you explain the nuances of Indian MICE market for Thailand?
India, the second highest source market following China, has contributed more than 90,000 MICE travellers, generating more than 8 billion baht MICE revenue since 2015. The average length of stay for a MICE group from India is four nights. We always welcome any sort of business, but we have to consider the accessibility factor - the flight capacity. We have grown in terms of numbers per group. Earlier, we had one or two groups of over 1000 pax. Last year, we saw many such big groups from India, about 10 groups of over 500 pax and three to four groups over 1000 pax.
What kind of incentives do you offer to big corporate groups from India?
We pay a reimbursement based on the number of people, for which there is a minimum cap of 200 people to qualify and if they have booked for a minimum of three nights with either a CSR activity or a green venue, they are eligible for a refund of 100,000 Thai Baht and the subsidy increases in proportion to the number of people. There is a similar subsidy for 200-pax groups in the 'Meet Double Cities' campaign for a minimum of four nights in two different cities and some extra different criteria.
Enumerate the experiential activities offered? In terms of experiential MICE, we are keen to promote sustainable meetings and have a campaign which was very successful for 2017. There are many examples of CSR activities which reflect the sustainable way to conduct business events. These include Mountain CSR, Beach CSR and City CSR.