TCEB plans to develop MICE Intelligence Centre

The MICE Intelligence Centre will be vital for Thai operators to get a current overview of the market, with access to updated data and other useful information.

Last year, Thailand welcomed a record 881,345 MICE visitors, up 9.7 per cent from 2006.

The share of inbound MICE visitors to overall international visitors has risen sharply, from 3.81 per cent in 2004 to 6.09 per cent in 2007. The global average is about 3 per cent.

For the meetings and conventions market, the revenue generated by conventions (noncorporate meetings) takes on even greater dimen¬sions since many of the events gen¬erate high delegate volumes.

As the world becomes more envi¬ronmentally conscious, experts are predicting that conventions will be turning more and more green in order to be successful.

Meanwhile, the incentives market in Thailand is small when compared with the other segments, but it has huge potential and grew by 35.6 per cent last year.

Of all the MICE segments, the incentives market is undoubtedly the most fickle and sensitive to changes in fashion. The choice of destination for incentives is influenced by many factors, including budget, and the size of a company's budget for such expenditure is determined largely by the state of the economy in general.

The exhibitions market is still growing, but the growth rate has been declining. In common with other MICE segments, the demand for exhibitions tends to track the general state of the national and global economy.