Thailand targets growth in conference travel

Thailand unveiled its MICE (meeting incentive conference and exhibition) campaign in Shanghai on Thursday, in a bid to boost its share of the Chinese conference market.

It welcomed 63,955 Chinese conference travelers last year, representing an impressive increase of 31.6 percent compared to the figure for 2011, according to Thailand's Convention and Exhibition Bureau .

The figure was released at a three-day event which will close at Shanghai World Expo Center on Friday.

Parichat Svetasreni, marketing communications director of the bureau said that just over 70,000 conference travelers were expected in 2013, marking a 10 per cent rise from 2012.

China is one of the top-five contributors to the sector in Thailand. The others are India, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.

"The sector in Thailand is reaching out to China, pointing to the country's continuing buoyant economic growth," she said.

Emerging cities in China will join the more established ones as a source of growth for the conference market, she added.

"We anticipate more travelers from cities, such as Chengdu in Sichuan province, Wuhan in Hubei province and Suzhou in Jiangsu province, to Thailand in the future," she said.

Thailand saw a buoyant year for the conference sector in 2012 with 895,224 visitors and 7,382 events. This marked a 6.84 per cent rise from 2011.

The average length of stay last year for conference visitors was 5.5 days, with an average contribution of $536 per person per day, Parichat said.

The sector in Thailand was also responsible for 9.49 percent of all tourism earnings in 2012.

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