Mall operators Siam Piwat and The Mall Group are urging the government to allow resumption of flights from CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) nations in an effort to reboot the retail business.
Mayuree Chaipromprasit, senior executive vice-president for marketing at Siam Piwat, said the company would like to ask the government to permit foreign tourists from the CLMV group to visit Thailand, citing the low number of coronavirus cases in those countries.
She said the government should also come up with concise preventive measures for CLMV tourist groups.
According to Mrs Mayuree, tourists from the CLMV nations have high purchasing power and account for a large portion of foreign tourists who visit Siam Center, Siam Discovery and Siam Paragon.
Foreign tourists make up 40% of total visitors at the three malls, and 30% of those are from the four neighbouring countries.
"Tourists from the CLMV have spent an average of 100,000 baht per visit," Mrs Mayuree said. "These shoppers enjoy a variety of services, from fashion to beauty, helping distribute income to various business owners."
She said the company also asked the government to launch special campaigns to lure upcountry residents to Bangkok for shopping.
"We would like the government to encourage spending in Bangkok, which suffered a greater impact from the pandemic than provincial areas," Mrs Mayuree said.
She urged the government to promote the Thai Shop Thai campaign to encourage Thais to buy more Thai brands.
"Some Thai designer brands may have to close down their stores in the near future, so we call on Thai people to help support Thai brands," Mrs Mayuree said.
Voralak Tulaphorn, chief marketing officer of The Mall Group, said that with Thailand's retail business reliant on tourism, the company expects the 3.6-trillion-baht retail industry to contract by a two-digit rate this year.
"About 50% of our customers have resumed shopping, but sales have yet to recover accordingly because most shoppers who come to the stores have specific needs they are shopping for instead of just browsing as they did before the pandemic," Ms Voralak said.
As part of efforts to stimulate shopping and consumer sentiment, The Mall Group and Siam Piwat have spent 180 million baht to unite their department stores and shopping complexes -- including The Mall Department Store, The Emporium, The EmQuartier, Siam Paragon, Siam Center and Siam Discovery -- under the Bangkok Shopping Festival campaign.
The event runs June 26 to Aug 2 and is expected to generate 4 billion baht in sales.