MICE events called off

Natwut Amornvivat, president of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), said yesterday that the closure of the airport would severely hit the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions sector and cause inconvenience to about 2,000 MICE travellers arriving in Thailand today on 18 international flights.

The incident is having a big effect on seven events due to be held here during the remainder of the year.

The 7th Annual Asia Business Leaders Awards, which the TCEB and CNBC Asia Pacific were due to jointly host today and tomorrow at The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, has been cancelled. The other cancellation is the Hotai Executive Meeting, which was due to bring in 600 executives from Taiwan's auto assembly groups. The event was to be held at the Royal Cliff Beach Pattaya Hotel until Sunday.

"For scheduled international meetings and conventions, there are still some green lights, such as CAFEO, IQC 2008-Bangkok and APACRS 2008. The 9th Asia Group 2 Meeting 2008 is postponed from the targeted dates of November 27-30," said Natwut.

Fespa World Asia Pacific 2008 is going ahead at Bitec this weekend.

"We have our officers ready to assist and transportation to facilitate. We are coordinating closely with all concerned government and public sectors, Immigration, Airport Authority of Thailand and international airlines to facilitate arriving and departing international delegates," said Natwut.

The TCEB has set up emergency centres at Don Mueang Airport and the bureau's head office.