Chiang Mai events to grow

Ministry of Tourism and Sports believes the Chiang Mai Convention Centre could boost the province’s events business by 10% to 15% a year. The ministry deputy permanent secretary, Saksan Nakwong, said the convention centre could accelerate the current growth rate of 7% for business-related events to around 10% to 15% annually. Due to open early next year, the centre will be positioned as the events hub for ASEAN and East Asia particularly targeting to Myanmar, Laos, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan. This is a tall order, not for the actual facilities, but for the city’s tourism industry, which lacks direct airline flights from these markets. Business tourism visitors would need to transfer through Bangkok and that brings into play the capital’s superior events facilities. Pattaya, too, can compete with a one-hour bus transfer from Suvarnabhumi Airport to the resort’s top-rated convention centre, PEACH. Events grow on the back of direct airline services,  mainly easy access from key hub cities in the region and that is lacking in Chiang Mai. Even the national airline’s services to Chiang Mai do not always connect conveniently with the airline’s regional network. Connecting at the Bangkok’s airport can take hours, while some flights require an overnight stop in the capital. But it is very likely that the convention centre can survive on events business sourced in the domestic market, particularly from Bangkok and led by government related conferences that are easier to switch to Chiang Mai to support the endeavour. Mr Saksan confirmed: “Initially, we will target the domestic market for around 90% mainly state organisations, associations, private companies, and exhibition firms, while 10% will be from the international market such as the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) event, fam-trips, trade shows, roadshow and chamber of commerce events particularly in the fields of medicine, education and local handicrafts.” It will take four years to source revenue earning international events and the main concern is that just three months out from the opening a marketing team has not been appointed to promote thecentre. The convention centre will able to accommodate around 10,000 participants and ideally suited for product launches, exhibitions and conferences related to development projects and agriculture. Chiang Mai attracts around 4.5 million visitors a year of which 1 million are foreigners. The events market is estimated at a very low 60,000 visitors, hardly enough to justify a convention centre project. The province hosted 427 events circulated Bt3,350 million with a breakdown of Bt3,270 million from 40,700 international visits and Bt80 million from 19,000 the  domestic market. These are ballpark figures and if they are true, the events have been comfortably served by existing hotel convention centres. Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved a public organisation named Ping Nakhon Development Bureau to manage Chiang Mai International Convention and Exhibition Centre effective 1 January 2013. TTR Weekly assesses that this is far too late to put any marketing plan into the  international market to secure meetings this side of 2015 at the earliest. There was enough lead time to appoint a management and marketing team back in 2010 to ensure there were firm business prospects in place by 2013. Of course, officials will blame construction delays, but taking them into account, a professional team should have been in place at the latest January 2012.  That was when it became apparent the centre would not open until early 2013. That has not happened and no one is raising a hand to acknowledge there has been a gross oversight in project management. To save face, government agencies that might have liked to host their events elsewhere will be forced to use the centre. But it will be a case of the left hand paying the right hand and until a management team is in place the countdown to real-world event revenue will not begin Ministry of Tourism and Sports signed a contact with EMC and Power Line to build the Chiang Mai Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 October 2008. The project should have been completed by 1 November last year with a construction period of 762 days. It will open early next year after a soft opening period starting this December  tests facilities.