In 2014, TCEB’s promotion of Thailand’s MICE sector will continue under the Five-Year Master Plan (2012-2016), with its three fundamental strategies – WIN, PROMOTE and DEVELOP.  TCEB will promote development and global visibility of the Thailand brand through its new campaign: ‘Thailand CONNECT: Your Global Business Events Connections,’ in line with TCEB’s Growth Driver brand development.

The Thailand CONNECT campaign focuses on three strengths:

  1. Diversity of Destinations. Thailand’s strategic location at the heart of Asia, together with convenient facilities and infrastructure, offers visitors an unrivalled choice of destinations. Thailand’s six international airports connect to 190 destinations worldwide with more than 500 flights per day. With nine purpose-built international conference and exhibition venues, the combined total exhibition space of 222,984 square meters is the highest in the region. Thailand’s five officially designated ‘MICE Cities’ (Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen) offer unbeatable diversity of choice or MICE events of any type and scale.

 

  1. Unrivalled Business Opportunities. With fast and convenient connections to all other countries in the region, ASEAN’s second largest economy is poised to play a leading role in the forthcoming unified regional market of the ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, in 2015. Economic integration will remove trade barriers and bring free transfer of goods, services, skilled labor, trade and investment among ASEAN members and its population of almost 600 million. Thailand is itself a major production and export base for key industries such as automotive and industrial components, computers and IT, energy, rubber and plastics. Adding to its strategic significance as a gateway to ASEAN, Thailand’s bilateral free trade agreements with 11 countries around the world will further reinforce Thailand’s strategic importance within this vast unified market.

 

  1. 3.    High Quality Professionals. In addition to its legendary hospitality and quality of service, Thailand’s MICE industry has led the world in introducing global standards such as Energy Management (ISO 50001), Food Safety Management System (ISO 22000), MICE Security Management System (TISI 22300), and most recently, the new Event Sustainability Management System (ISO 20121). Thailand’s MICE sector has been boosted by accolades and awards from leading agencies, and Thailand is consistently ranked as one of the world’s top MICE event destinations. For example, ICCA ranked Thailand as No. 1 worldwide by number of international meetings, while UFI ranked Thailand No. 1 by number of international exhibitions. In 2012 Thailand hosted a total of 7,382 MICE events, including prestigious global mega-events such as the 2012 Rotary International Convention, World Stamp 2013, the 65th World Newspaper Congress, ITU World, Telecom 2013, World Marketing Forum 2014 and more.

 

Together with the Thailand CONNECT campaign, TCEB is also launching ‘The Signature,’ our latest advertising campaign, reflecting the philosophy of promoting business cooperation, both within Thailand and across the Asian region, and successful business agreements. The campaign incorporates a number of exciting market promotion packages to support MICE business success under the Thailand CONNECT Exclusive umbrella.

  • CONNECT Destinations: For meetings and incentive travel groups, TCEB offers financial support of approximately $6,660 or Baht 200,000 for events with more than 200 participants. Participants must stay at least five nights in Thailand, including an overnight stay in at least one other province apart from the main meeting location.
  • CONNECT People: For international conventions, TCEB offers unique promotional support for events in the ASEAN+6 countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Taiwan and China (including Hong Kong and Macau).
  • CONNECT Business: For international exhibitions, TCEB offers special support for business matching activities for trade visitor groups of 15 or more delegates from ASEAN+6 and BIMSTEC countries, who travel to attend TCEB-supported international events in Thailand. To qualify for special support of $150 per person, the groups must stay a minimum of three days/two nights, with at least 45 business matching appointments. Each participant will need at least three business matchmaking appointments; for groups with fewer than 45 appointments in total, the level of support will be $100 per person.