Inspired venue now a leading Bangkok destination for domestic and overseas visitors with revenue surpassing 1 billion baht
Muang Sook Siam has revealed itself as a window-to-the-world for Thai lifestyles, as it announces its first-year success as a key attraction for Iconsiam – Thailand’s new international shopping landmark. Visitors have taken the new destination into their hearts, enthusiastically lauding its varied local dining and shopping experiences under the theme “Feel the Charm of Happy Thai Lifestyles with a Trip to Muang Sook Siam”.
Growing in popularity throughout its first year, the mini-city attracts more than 60,000 visitors per day on average, with 1 billion baht in total revenue. Muang Sook Siam enters its second year with plans to launch a learning centre called Muang Sook Siam Academy to boost the marketing strength of its small community businesses. An award scheme provides an incentive for stores to maintain high standards. Muang Sook Siam can also claim success in helping to grow the popularity of Thai community products worldwide as foreign visitors bring their purchases to their home countries.
Iconsiam, Thailand’s number one shopping landmark, has been quick to recognise the first-year success of Muang Sook Siam, where products from every region are displayed in a 15,000-square metre venue which showcases the distinctive allure of Thailand’s lifestyle. A wide variety of products from across Thailand, including foods and utensils, are available all under one roof in a vibrant and creative atmosphere.
Visitors can browse more than 30 shops selling Thai community products, while more than 1,000 displays have been rotated through over the last 12 months. Muang Sook Siam has attracted strong interest from both Thai and foreign visitors, earning a reputation as a top dining and shopping destination and a can’t-miss tourist attraction. The lifestyle destination was developed in line with a Thai government initiative to boost income for local communities while preserving local folk wisdom and the traditional Thai lifestyle in a sustainable way.
According to project chairman Luckana Naviroj: “Muang Sook Siam is among the standout zones being developed as major visitor-magnets at Iconsiam. The mini-city is inspired by the idea of supporting and promoting small community product producers from all regions of the Kingdom, by providing them with sales and marketing skills and tools to help them benefit from modern business practices. The aim is to fulfil the demands of shoppers – particularly foreigners – at the source, and to help Thai producers and suppliers effectively penetrate the market both in Thailand and abroad. In the future, small producers will have the skill and knowledge to grow their businesses by expanding into e-commerce to sustainably support Thailand’s digital economy, and further cultivate Thai wisdom, heritage, artwork and traditional crafts.
“Thanks to strong marketing support and all-round knowledge, entrepreneurs from all of Thailand’s 77 provinces have been very successful in doing business over the past year,” Luckana added.
“We found that the entrepreneurs who sell their community products at Muang Sook Siam have enjoyed higher income, resulting in higher investment budgets for their businesses, which in turn enables them to further develop their products. Meanwhile, their children, who are the next generation of community entrepreneurs, will be encouraged to continue the business, making their family crafts-making a sustainable and growing venture.”
“This is because they will see the opportunities and success with their own eyes, which will help preserve traditional wisdom and arts & crafts of Thailand, ensuring that we are well-prepared to offer our products on the global market.”
Muang Sook Siam showcases the culture and traditions of Thailand’s four primary regions, including food, artworks, handicrafts, herbal remedies, folk theatre and local wisdom through cooperation between business partners, artists, rural enterprises and Thai communities. The lifestyle destination is divided into four zones representing the country’s North, Northeast, South and Central regions. Of the more than 1,000 shops which have rotated through over the past year, 600 have offered regional food specialities, while 400 have showcased other products. But when you add in the number of events hosted here over the past 12 months, Muang Sook Siam can boast some 2,500 separate visitor attractions in its first year alone.
Today, Muang Sook Siam is attracts 50,000 to 60,000 visitors per day. The rapid growth in visitor numbers is driven by several types of foreign visitor, such as Individual Travellers, Free and Independent Travellers, and Foreign Individual Tourism. These groups have high purchasing power and represent about 30 per cent of total visitors to the mini-city.
The largest group of foreign visitors to Muang Sook Siam are from China, followed by Taiwan and fellow-ASEAN countries, along with Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Europe and the Middle East.
What’s remarkable about Muang Sook Siam is that it provides a platform for rural entrepreneurs to present their community products year-round, while encouraging them to hone their business savvy in many ways, such as developing their products to match modern advancements; combining innovation and technology to increase product value for farmers and villagers, and; helping them learn about retail mechanisms, overseas wholesale markets and a modern marketing platform called the Omni Channel. The Omni Channel operates under an eco-trading system for sustainable management of products, complying with the government’s Thailand 4.0 development initiative to bring innovation into the development of rural wisdom-based products.
Luckana continued: “Muang Sook Siam also meets the requirements of urban consumers, who want the convenience of being able to shop for products from many different communities all displayed in a single venue. Visitors can browse regional foods, kitchenware and other utensils produced with a high level of craftsmanship, and experience the beauty of art and traditional wisdom of these ages-old rural communities.
They also like having the opportunity to touch and feel the unique qualities imbued by the ‘seven pillars of Thai happiness’: Sook Saab – offering a diversity of delicious foods from different locales; Sook Sanei – presenting the inimitable charm of Thai lifestyle as expressed through the beauty of local architecture; Sook Srang Sran – creating new and innovative expressions of Thainess; Sook Sueb San – the evolving relationships and cultural stories of the various communities, and; Sook Sanook – which showcases the Thai spirit of fun and joy. By extension, Sook Siam embodies the confluence of these seven “pillars of happiness”, inspiring genuine and original products that evoke pride that can be recognised both here in Thailand and throughout the world.
In addition to strong positive feedback from tourists who have flocked to the destination over the past year, Muang Sook Siam recently boosted the capabilities of entrepreneurs from various communities by selecting remarkable and unique shops from different regions for training to increase their skills and knowledge.
Of these shops, 10 were then selected to receive SOOKSIAM Local Heroes 2019 awards. The awards aim to recognise unique products from rural Thai communities and to encourage local entrepreneurs to maintain their standards and improve competitiveness, which will lead to sustainable growth. The first SOOKSIAM Local Heroes 2019 awards were recently presented to the outstanding entrepreneurs.
“Muang Sook Siam can take pride in boosting the popularity of community products both here and in overseas markets with the country’s unique and charming Thainess. In the past year, many entrepreneurs operating at Muang Sook Siam and garnered strong interest from foreign customers. Among those who have built on this success by expanding their business overseas include the owner Loong Ngern Clay-Pot Coffee from Chiang Mai, who has opened branch of the shop in Indonesia; Kuay Tiew Rua (Boat Noodles) Muang Pathum, which has entered in a franchise agreement with a business in China; and Joob General, whose hand-made woollen products from Phasi Charoen in Bangkok are being marketed in Taiwan. Others who have achieved similar success include Kanom Nga Baan Charnmuang (Dek Doi) from Mae Hong Son province; Pha Toomthong crafts from Buriram province; Tai Muang Phia enterprise group from Khon Kaen province, and; Kanom Jeeb Pha Ping from Trang province.
As part of its future business development and expansion plans, Muang Sook Siam at Iconsiam will launch the Muang Sook Siam Academy project in 2020 as a springboard for rural entrepreneurs in Thailand to expand internationally. In the long-term, the company will remain committed to supporting Thai entrepreneurs to market their community food and crafts products in the global marketplace.
“We want Muang Sook Siam to be a source of pride for the Thai people, and be acknowledged at the national level. This is driven by a keen focus on support from the private sector, which wants to boost knowledge and income among local entrepreneurs who produce the community products. The project is in line with the government’s initiative, which focuses on the development of knowledge, capability and income generation in rural communities, which will lead to overall sustainable growth of the economy’ concluded Luckana.