The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), a government body tasked with ginning up the country’s number of the corporate events, has forecasted a 10-15 percent increase in business travelers in 2013.
According to TCEB, around 940,000 suits will descend upon the country this year, generating about 88 billion baht (US$2.83 billion) in revenue. In 2012, Thailand received 895,224 such visitors, responsible for 79.8 billion baht ($2.54 billion). Corporate events accounted for 9.49 percent of all tourism earnings in Thailand, or 0.58 percent of GDP.
The TCEB’s forecast comes on the heels of a new initiative – ‘THAILAND: Connecting Asia’s Diversity of Dynamic Destinations’ – which looks to boost business travel to the country by promoting Thailand’s impressive event infrastructure, vibrant cities and “recreation for business events.”
The driver of growth for the nation’s corporate event industry is Asia, which accounted for 65 percent of all business events in Thailand in 2012, with the top five source markets being India, China, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.
