Retail outlets in Ratchaprasong are aiming to model the area after Singapore’s famed Orchard Road shopping district and increase the number of daily visitors by 30 percent next year.
The Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association (RSTA) yesterday brought Platinum Fashion Mall and Novotel Bangkok Platinum into its ranks as part of the attempt to create an integrated shopping area comprising Ratchaprasong, Pratunam, Pathum Wan and Ploenchit roads, The Nation reported.
Last year the area saw a 27 percent increase in visitors with an average of 196,000 per day, and next year RSTA hopes to see 350,000 visitors.
The entire “integrated city lifestyle center” will occupy a combined space of 1.02 million square meters of central Bangkok and aims to create a leading business and lifestyle destination in Southeast Asia partly by improving infrastructure, such as integrated security and better lighting around businesses and along the BTS Skywalk.
Also, about THB70 million is being spent to widen the Skywalk from Amarin Plaza to Gaysorn – to be finished in October – and another plan is to extend the Skywalk from Gaysorn to Platinum Fashion Mall.
The Ratchaprasong area includes 12 businesses: Gaysorn, Amarin Plaza, CentralWorld, Erawan Bangkok, President Tower Arcade, Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, InterContinental Bangkok, Holiday Inn Bangkok, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok, Centara Grand, Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel, and now Platinum Fashion Mall and Novotel Bangkok Platinum.
