A new US$20 million cultural and retail attraction headed for Thailand’s upcoming Iconsiam development is promising to bring together 3,000 traditional businesses and craftsmen from the country’s 77 provinces in a single destination.
Chadatip Chutrakul, CEO of Siam Piwat and director of Iconsiam, said: “SookSiam is like a window into every province and into every corner of Thailand… The outlets at SookSiam are real stores that all have real counterparts in towns and villages around Thailand and which are transposed into SookSiam.
“Within SookSiam are outlets of varying types that are built in the style of their respective regions, and which offer regional specialties, whether they be crafts, foods, beverages or services that are unique to that region,” she said.
To bring the local towns to life, the attraction will leverage technology and and interactive virtual reality software, Chayapong Naviroj, CEO of SookSiam, added.
Explaining the “co-creation” model, Luckana Naviroj, who is producing and curating the attraction, said: “Everything special being presented at SookSiam is created by someone somewhere else in Thailand. We ‘co-create’ with them by adding our knowledge of consumer preferences and supporting them with innovation as well as with retailing and marketing techniques based on our insights into the needs of Thai and foreign visitors. We also assist them in ‘curating’ the selection and the presentation of their offerings, adding value to their intellectual property and proprietary skills.”
SookSiam will span 1.6ha in the US$1.7 billion Iconsiam, a mega riverside project scheduled to open at the end of this year.
