As director of the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), Vithaya Sintharapantorn, 37, hopes Bangkok will not have any more bad news for international visitors, given that the New Year's Eve bombings have already scared off many would-be tourists.

The TCEB is responsible for promoting Thailand as a destination for marketing incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE).

Vithaya says many tour groups that were planning to visit Thailand under the sponsorship of marketing-incentive programmes cancelled their trips in the wake of the December 31 explosions in Bangkok.

"Marketing incentives is probably the most vulnerable of all the three segments because it's the easiest to cancel. As for conventions or exhibitions, it's more troublesome for the organisers to cancel since most of the big events are planned a long time in advance.

"There are more factors to be considered. In any case, I certainly hope we won't have any more untoward incidents that affect confidence in our country," says Vithaya, who is directly responsible for promoting the exhibition business here and abroad.

An MBA graduate from George Washington University, Vithaya, who previously worked for a British American Tobacco unit in Singapore, says MICE business is probably the most lucrative sector of the tourism industry because the so-called "business tourists" who come here as part of marketing-incentive programmes or for conventions or exhibitions are bigger spenders than the average leisure visitor.

"Business tourists spend an average of Bt15,000-Bt20,000 per person per day while they're here, compared to the average spending of Bt3,000-Bt4,000 per head per day for those who are here only for leisure. Of the 12 million foreign visitors to Thailand, about 550,000, or 5 per cent, are MICE tourists. These people are sponsored by corporations or other organisations and also spend their own money while here, so their spending power is far higher than that of the average holidaymaker.

"Currently, 34 per cent of MICE revenue comes from exhibitions, while marketing-incentive programmes account for 40 per cent. The rest comes from conventions. My task is to promote Thailand among 'quality' visitors, not as just another cheap destination," Vithaya says. "While there's still some political uncertainty, I'm optimistic that the MICE business can still grow by 10 per cent this year. Even though the first quarter is likely to see the number of visitors drop by 15-20 per cent compared to the same period last year due to the eight small explosions on December 31, we should recover in subsequent quarters," he says.

For the rest of this year, the state-funded TCEB will provide financial and other forms of support to more than a dozen international exhibitions scheduled to take place here.

Among such exhibitions are VIV Asia, the region's major exhibition for livestock and related industries, which will be held on March 7-9 and attended by 20,000 international visitors; the Asean MICE exhibition (March 8-11); and Intermach (May 9-13).

The Metalex, Propack Asia (food processing and packaging), Taitronics (electronic appliances), TFBO-TRAF (franchise business), IFHS (food and hospitality), HOSPImedica (hospital and medical equipment and supplies), Food Ingredients Asia, and Proud Asia ('inner well-being and beauty') events have not set their dates yet.

Vithaya says Bangkok is well positioned to become an exhibition hub for Asean, which has a combined 500 million consumers, so the government has been pushing hard for the growth of MICE business in the past few years.

"TCEB was set up two and a half years ago as a unit under the PM's Office. Currently, we report to Deputy Premier and Finance Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula. We also work closely with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, whose governor sits on the TCEB board. As a facilitator and promoter of MICE business, our annual budget is about Bt400 million, half of which goes to help fund selected events.

"Last year, MICE business generated Bt45 billion for the country, or about 10 per cent of the total tourism revenue. Yet we need to further grow this lucrative segment before competition from neighbouring countries such as Vietnam intensifies.

"We're doing this by providing financial and other services, such as holding road shows to promote Thailand abroad, organising the Asean MICE exhibition to educate more people about the MICE business, and lobbying the Customs Department to be more supportive of the expo trade with more import-tax exemptions," he says.

"We believe that the country has the potential to excel in the MICE business. So the government should support it by investing in the transport infrastructure so that visitors have a direct access from the airport to the exhibition venue. In fact, MICE business fits the concept of sufficiency economy, since we are mainly leveraging our domestic resources with superior management skills to increase the value of our resources.

"Outside Asean, the world's top destination for exhibitions is now China and, later, maybe, India. Since North America and Europe have relocated much of their production bases to China, the global exhibition trade has also shifted to China, where every major city now wants to build its own exhibition and convention hall," he says.

As for Thailand, Vithaya says the challenge as of now is to ensure that the domestic situation is really under control or else there will be less business during the course of this year.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com