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Published on November 27, 2007

The show runs from today to Thursday in Barcelona, Spain.

TCEB president Natwut Amornvivat said it was world's biggest trade show for the meetings and incentives (MI) industry, where business operators can introduce products and services to potential buyers from all parts of the world.

"For Thailand, TCEB has joined forces with the Thai team, representatives from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the Thailand Incentive and Convention Association (TICA), and Thai Airways International (THAI). We are promoting business operators to attend this trade show as it offers a good opportunity to expand markets globally through the presentation of potential readiness, new products and services available in Thailand for the MI sector," said Natwut.

He said participation in the fair was part of a plan to develop Thailand into a MICE hub.

Over the past eight years, Thailand's MICE industry has been a significantly fast-moving sector, especially in the meetings and incentives industry, which has shown average annual growth of 20-25 per cent.

Quality tourists in the MI group have been flooding into Thailand with a tendency to increase in number each year. Last year saw 270,000 MI tourists visiting Thailand, up 25 per cent from the 225,000 recorded in 2005.

Malinee Kitaphanich, director of meetings and incentives, said this was the fourth time that TCEB had supported the participation of Thai MICE business operators in the EIBTM fair.

The TCEB hopes private operators will have greater opportunities for business negotiations with the more than 5,000 global buyers at EIBTM 2007, especially in the European market, and expects to see revenue of at least Bt250 million earned from negotiations there.

The TCEB recently hosted important MI shows in Bangkok and Pattaya. First was the 15th Incentive Travel and Conventions, Meetings Asia fair and the 10th Corporate Travel World Asia-Pacific exhibition both took place at CentralWorld in Bangkok from October 23-25. The double-bill event was attended by 1,872 visitors from 59 countries.

This was followed by the 46th ICCA Congress and Exhibition from October 26-31 at the Peach Convention Centre in Pattaya, which received more than 800 attendees from 64 countries.

The TCEB will next host ITU Telecom Asia 2008 next September 2-5.

The Nation