Ramada targets MICE market after renovation

General manager Ian Woodward said yesterday that the hotel would hold a grand re-opening next month after re-naming itself from Menam Riverside.

The hotel was targeting equal revenue from the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions market, the local corporate market and the leisure market.

"Before changing our hotel brand, we relied on only the tourist market," he said.

The hotel learned that when tourism had problems, so did its business. It also sees opportunities from the growing MICE and corporate markets.

Tourism was suffering from the political chaos, he said. Hotels could not depend on tourists, they had to seek new markets to reduce risk.

All the hotel's dining rooms and restaurants, guestrooms and suites, and conference and banquet halls were spruced up to serve MICE and corporate groups.

The hotel hopes that the market expansion next year will add 20 per cent to this year's revenue.

However, the airport closure has hurt his hotel. At least 10 per cent of bookings were cancelled.

"This high season is gone, we have to look beyond to the next high season, which will run from November 2009 to April 2010," he said.

Although the hotel lost tourists from the political situation, the MICE and corporate markets could be replaced, he said.

The hotel was usually 80-85 per cent full during the high season but due to the economic slowdown and political turmoil, its occupancy was running at 40 per cent, he added.