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Published on March 21, 2008

The company has been working with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) by joining the TAT's international roadshows. At the same time, it is cooperating with more than 30 hotels belonging to the local hotels' association by granting special privileges to all hotel guests, including coupons for free gifts at the shopping mall.

Phuket Square also operates the 400-room Millennium Resort Patong Hotel, a five-star hotel nearby Jungceylon, and this provides another major channel for attracting wealthy shoppers.

The shopping mall opened last April, and its major customers are middle- to upper-level foreign travellers, because of its proximity to Phuket's popular Patong Beach. They account for 70 per cent of Jungceylon's visitors in the high tourist season from November to April and 60 per cent during the rest of the year. The remaining visitors are local shoppers.

International shoppers' spending per person per bill currently ranges from Bt4,000 to Bt5,000.

By attracting more wealthy shoppers, Jungceylon expects the spending rate to rise beyond Bt5,000 and more money will flow to the shopping mall's tenants, said deputy chief executive Prawit Janyasittikul.

Jungceylon's other marketing activities include distributing tourist privilege cards for travellers to use as discount cards when visiting the shopping mall, arranging co-promotions with travel agencies and organising weekly events.

At present, Jungceylon receives an average of 30,000 local and international visitors per day. Tourists from Scandinavia, Russia, the UK, the US, China, South Korea and Japan are major shoppers during the high season, while travellers from the Middle East are the largest group during the rest of the year.

The strong baht has not affected Jungceylon much, because its visitors are always in an exploring and shopping mood, Prawit said. Instead, the shopping centre's operators are more concerned about the proximity of southern unrest and the safety of its visitors.

Jungceylon doesn't see much competition because rival retailers are naturally separated into the various beach areas on Phuket and there is no other shopping mall in the Patong area.

To celebrate its first anniversary next month, the company is spending Bt10 million from its overall marketing budget of Bt70 million this year to arrange a marketing campaign called "I Hot". Running throughout the coming hot season, it will involve various discount offers and marketing events.

Jungceylon's revenue last year was Bt500 million.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation