Royal Cliff pursues events route to become a ‘destination’

Royal Cliff's Facade

Royal Cliff is harbouring strong ambitions of turning itself into a “destination” through the creation of its own lifestyle and sporting events, building on its core strength as a major resort and MICE venue in Pattaya with its PEACH convention centre on-site.

“We are creating our own events to target families and the luxury segments. Not only do we accept events but we also create them,” Vitanart Vathanakul, CEO of Royal Cliff Hotels Group told TTG Asia.

“This could be another channel to help Royal Cliff stand out and become a destination. The idea is to make Royal Cliff more vibrant and entertaining. We are more than a resort or convention centre,” he stated.

Royal Cliff’s Facade

One key way the hotel group has been pursuing its lifestyle events strategy is through organising comedy festivals.

Vitanart revealed that Royal Cliff has brought UK comedian, Bill Bailey, to the resort for a one-night show in 2018, and is now looking at inviting regional acts such as Singapore’s Jinx Yeo to “promote the Asian community to the Asian market”.

Focus is also placed on staging sports tournaments and competitions such as the Bohemia REI and FITZ Club ITF Seniors Championship, which brought over 200 players to compete in the senior tennis tournament. “I even attended and competed in (the games) to get a feel of how to improve the tournament further from a player’s perspective,” said Vitanart.

Taking the events route to strengthen its destination positioning strategy is a clear attempt by the Pattaya hospitality icon to keep its offerings fresh.

“Royal Cliff is more than 45 years old, so we want to relive memories for families (who have visited us since the 1970s) as well as their second generation, and millennials,” said Vitanart.

The property in December 2018 emerged from a major makeover that was rolled out “to improve infrastructure of the hotel, as well as to drive up performance of the management and staff”.

Costing a billion baht (US$31.4 million), the makeover was led by prominent Thai architect Duangrit Bunnag, who gave a complete overhaul of the common areas, F&B and event spaces, sports clubs as well as rooms.

The upgrades include Mini Suite, while the new Ocean Deluxe room was repainted and refurbished with new bathroom fixtures.

Sponsored Post