Event organisers feel the squeeze
Thailand's event-organising industry will experience a downturn and see no growth next year because of
the new government's sufficiency-economy philosophy, according to executives of Index Event Agency.
They said yesterday the government's policies had cut spending on promotional events by 50 per cent, and private sector companies are likely to opt for smaller events targeting specific customers.Kriengkarn and Kriengkrai Kanjanapokin, the company's co-chief executives, said the government sector used to be the biggest spender in the event-organising industry because of the many projects promoting Thailand as the Asian hub of various sectors. Index has felt the affects of the political change over recent months, and estimates it has lost about Bt100 million as a result of project cancellations by both the government and the private sector. Index now expects its growth this year will be about 13 per cent, with revenue of Bt710 million, rather than the earlier estimate of 20-per-cent growth. It expects the number of government sector events will fall again next year, and private companies are likely to restrict their promotional activities to very specific events that communicate directly with particular target groups. The Index executives said the alcoholic beverage industry, which is about to come under a total advertising and promotion ban, would become one of the top spenders in the event-organising business next year. To tackle the downturn, Index is preparing to create separate staff teams to work on particular industries. Each team will have its own creative, planning and event-organising units. Over the past 10 months, Index Event Agency and its subsidiaries have recorded revenue of Bt653 million. Of this, Bt430 million came from event management, Bt190 million from retail services, and Bt15 million from other services. Nitida Asawanipont, The Nation
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