The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) is set to reinforce Mice standards across Southeast Asia, aiming to attract more international trade fairs to the region.
Supawan: Proposing Asean guidelines
Supawan Teerarat, senior vice-president for strategic business development and innovation at the TCEB, said the plan will help strengthen Asean Mice Venue Standards (AMVS) in the exhibition venue category.
She said the bureau has proposed draft guidelines for the assessment auditor of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions venues in order to escalate the standards on a regional level and eventually boost growth in exhibition events.
Research by the Hong Kong-based Business Strategies Group on behalf of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry reported that in 2017 exhibitors were able to expand exhibition spaces sold in Asia for 2,353 trade fairs, with the largest market share in China (704), followed by Japan (305) and India (204).
Revenue from trade fairs held in Asia in 2017 totalled US$5.6 billion, up 6% from 2016. Countries with the most revenue were China ($2.3 billion), Japan (which reached $1 billion for the first time) and Hong Kong ($417 million).
Thailand ranked eighth, hosting 92 trade fairs that contributed $218 million in income, good for No.1 in Asean in the trade fair segment.
"Interestingly, results of the study indicated that the exhibition market, particularly in Asia, has a tendency to grow more, in terms of the number of exhibitions and revenue," Mrs Supawan said.
She said the TCEB acknowledges opportunities to expand the market and plans to promote more Mice venues that meet industrial standards and implement certification on the Asean level.
Consequently, one sole standardisation will be observed across the region and can serve as a collective strength and selling point to provide mutual benefits for the development of Mice for Asean member countries in the future, Mrs Supawan said.
Thailand was a pioneer in the standardisation of Mice venues and proposed the concept to the Asean Tourism Forum in 2014.
Later, in 2016, the senior officials meeting agreed to include the Thailand Mice Venue Standards (TMVS) in the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan for 2016-25 and appointed Thailand as the working group on the drafting of the AMVS in collaboration with nine member countries under the Asean Tourism Professional Monitoring Committee.
Member countries have started to implement the Asean Mice venue standards in the convention rooms of hotels and resorts.
AMVS-certified countries are as follows: Brunei (three venues); Cambodia (five); Indonesia (five); Laos (five); Malaysia (five); Myanmar (five); the Philippines (five); Singapore (four); Vietnam (five); and Thailand (13).
For Thailand, the TCEB has provided venue standards workshops for entrepreneurs nationwide and expects the number of certified Mice venues in Thailand to increase by 20 this year, bringing the total number to 33 venues.