Christmas comes early to Bangkok's shopping district as an avalanche of foreign visitors hits town
The biggest malls in Bangkok are rushing to launch attentiongrabbing marketing campaigns for Christmas and New Year's as the reappearance of foreign visitors promises a bumper festival season.
"This month, we have seen a full recovery in foreign tourists. Thai consumers are also in a better mood with the pickup in local and global economies and fall in unemployment," Satima Tanabe, deputy general manager of Gaysorn Land Asset Management, the operator of the Gaysorn Shopping Centre, said yesterday.
Without unexpected incidents such as political unrest, the economy will get stronger quite smoothly, she said.
Tourists are back
"We found that 3,000 hotel rooms in the Ratchaprasong area are fully booked for Christmas and New Year. Tourists from the Middle East, Russia, India, China, Singapore and Hong Kong have returned to Bangkok in dramatic numbers," she said.
During the political unrest that rocked the capital in April and May, traffic at the mall dropped by almost 50 per cent, she said.
The shopping centre has had to revise its strategy to focus more on locals and recently launched a Facebook page to communicate directly with young shoppers.
Christmas promotions
Gaysorn yesterday introduced its Christmas fantasythemed Pure Reward scheme with regional allies such as American Express and the Leading Hotels of the World group. Running in parallel is the shopping centre's Bt10million seasonal campaign, "The Promotion of the Year", with prizes and special activities for every generation and lifestyle.
"We expect to increase visi¬tor traffic by 58 per cent, or 12,00013,000 shoppers a day, over the festive season," Satima said.
Invaded by Europe
Central Pattana (CPN) is about to launch its "World of Happiness" campaign for the festive period at CentralWorld shopping complex.
"An army of toy soldiers from European countries will be marching in to decorate our 'EU' theme," said Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, CPN's executive vice president for marketing. "And the shelves will be packed with EU products."
The shopping mall has seen shopper numbers grow by 20 per cent over the past few months, to 100,000 on weekdays and up to 130,000 on weekends. "However, trade from foreign tourists is expected to stay flat due to the global H1N1 influenza and financial crises. But as compensation, more local shoppers are visiting the complex, especially teenagers and university students, who see CentralWorld as a good place to hang out," he said.
About 6070 per cent of visitors to CentralWorld are locals, with foreign tourists making up 30 per cent of shoppers.