Loy Joon How, 44, the Singaporean general manager of Bangkok's Impact Exhibition Management Co Ltd, is quite optimistic that the Thai economy will pick up later this year.

As the head of one of the largest exhibition facilities in Southeast Asia with a total space of 140,000 square metres, Loy says that political uncertainty is currently the only major hindrance for the exhibition industry.

"I hope for the best," says the Singaporean, who was named general manager of Impact last January.

In his opinion, business has slowed in the wake of the New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok, which resulted in a number of event cancellations and postponements for Impact in the first quarter of this year.

In 2006, Impact organised about 300 events, attracting a total of 15 million visitors.

Given the political uncertainty following the September 19, 2006 coup, Rain, the popular Korean band, for instance, decided to delay a scheduled concert here until around June of this year.

In the current political atmosphere, businesses and industries have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Yet the situation should improve by year's end since general elections are scheduled to take place before then.

"In fact, Thailand's economic fundamental factors are still okay. Only consumer and business confidence is low. In addition, the country also has good infrastructure and facilities for the exhibition industry," he says, adding that the region's economic growth prospects and demand for exhibition services remain encouraging.

Due to its favourable geographic location, Thailand, which has a total of 250,000 square metres of exhibition space, is seen as a hub for the Southeast Asia or Asean region, which has a combined population of 500 million. Besides Thailand, he says, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam are competing to carve out their shares of the regional market.

China is not seen as a direct competitor even though the country is building up to 10 large-scale exhibition centres in several major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

Dubbed the "world's factory", China's appetite for these facilities is not unreasonable because the country, which has the world's largest population at 1.3 billion, also constitutes a huge world market all by itself.

As for Thailand, Loy says the industry has been growing at an annual rate of 10 to 15 per cent.

"As consumers become more educated and sophisticated, there is a need for businesses to use exhibitions as an effective marketing tool to reach out to their customers.

"Exhibitions provide a unique face-to-face environment for companies to reach out for their customers' five senses, and no other medium can do so for many targeted buyers in one place.

"Another driver for the exhibition sector's growth is Thailand's dynamic manufacturing base and export-oriented industries such as automotive, food, information technology, electronics, textiles and jewellery. "The country can attract both international visitors and business tourists," he says.

One of Impact's goals is to increase the number of international visitors attending Thai events. Currently 70 per cent of Thai events are consumer shows, while the rest are trade and professional shows.

For example, the upcoming "Smart and Happy 50 Up" event, which is aimed at senior citizens in Thailand and abroad, is expected to attract an estimated 5,000 foreign visitors, or 5 per cent of the total.

Like other nations in the Asia Pacific region, Thailand's ageing community has been growing significantly, with the number of people over the age of 60 projected to top 10 million in 2025.

Senior citizens have a wide array of daily needs for food, clothing, leisure, healthcare, travel, finance, housing, home care and legal and other professional services, so they represent a specific market segment for manufacturers and service-providers.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com