Driven by the Chinese New Year festival and the government's Easy E-Receipt scheme, SET-listed Central Pattana (CPN) expects retail sales growth of 20% in the first quarter, projecting a combined cash flow of 15 billion baht across all Central shopping mall branches.
Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, CPN's chief marketing officer, said the Easy E-Receipt scheme, which offers tax rebates of up to 50,000 baht to Thais from Jan 1 to Feb 15 comes at an appropriate time.
"The scheme runs from New Year extending until after the Feb 10 Chinese New Year. It can boost spending during this period, which is usually quiet after New Year festival expenditures," he said.
Mr Nattakit said the visa-free travel for Chinese nationals initiated in September would also help boost spending from Chinese tourists. According to a survey carried out by the CPN, 16,000 Chinese tourists visit branches of Central per day.
In addition to Chinese consumers, who were key drivers and favoured Thailand as their top destination for overseas trips, there were significant numbers of tourists from other countries such as Russia, Middle Eastern nations and India visiting the company shopping malls.
"There are more independent foreign tourists now than tour groups. They are quality tourists with high spending," said Mr Nattakit.
"We expect the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Thailand to definitely exceed 28 million this year."
To boost spending during the first quarter this year, CPN and Central Department Store are spending 500 million baht on their "The Great Chinese New Year 2024" campaign, targeting 20% growth in both sales and customer traffic nationwide.
They will focus on three quality target groups, comprising Thai-Chinese consumers, "new generation" tourists, and Malaysian and Chinese tourists, which are among the top groups visiting Thailand.
Natira Boonsri, chief executive of Central Department Stores Group under Central Retail, said the per capita spending by visitors had now risen to almost reach the level recorded prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Even though the visitor count remains steady, individual spending is increasing," she said. "We're renovating eight branches, including Central Chidlom. We expect to see a sales growth of 20% on completion of the renovations."
The three branches of Central Department Store delivering the highest sales were Central Chidlom, Central Ladprao and CentralWorld.