Ayutthaya City Park is set to expand the Mice market into five industrial estates in Ayutthaya province with tailor-made package services meant to attract thousands of companies in the area.
Somphon Rattchathapimolchai, chief of marketing for Ayutthaya City Park, said services featuring creative ideas such as theme parties, company team-building trips and staff parties will be provided for companies in the estates, which together employ more than 200,000 people.
"Themed parties involving sports and Thai traditional costumes that reference the popular Thai historical TV series Bupphaesannivas [Love Destiny] are in high demand," he said.
The industrial estates in the province are Rojana Industrial Park, Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate, Hi-Tech Industrial Estate Corp, Saha Rattana Nakorn Industrial Estate and Wang Noi Factory Land.
Mr Somphon said the services aim to draw more visitors and increase revenue from Mice (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) in the near future to around 15-20% of the total, up from only 5%.
One-day tourism incentive programmes such as cruising and riding on an elephant for visitors after company meetings are also available.
"Such programmes received a good response from customers, prompting us to set out lengthier packages to allow visitors to stay overnight at local homestays," he said.
Talks with homestay hosts have begun as such tour packages are of interest to foreign visitors, said Mr Somphon.
Ayutthaya City Park's Mice area recently received the Thailand Mice Venue Standard (TMVS) from the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau. The venue features meeting rooms and convention halls totalling 2,000 square metres and an outdoor event park for exhibitions and concerts.
While revenue from malls remains the major contributor for the company, he is confident the TMVS certification will help increase Mice events in the future.
"The certification should help us reach our goal of becoming a hub for Mice events in the province and the country in the future," said Mr Somphon.
The accreditation means the venue will be published in TCEB's directory and it has the option to have employees trained by the organisation.
Ayutthaya City Park expects to host 40-50 conventions and 10 events the rest of the year at Event Park, including Miss Grand Ayutthaya 2019 beauty contest, the River Prawn Festival and Countdown 2020.
Situated 80 kilometres north of Bangkok, the province received 8.8 million visitors last year, up 10% from 2017, in part because of the popular TV series Bupphaesannivas that aired on Channel 33. The series led to visitors wearing traditional costumes when visiting.