THAILAND’S tenuous position with MICE buyers became virtually untenable following the Royal Thai Army’s declaration of martial law (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 20, 2014) over the entire kingdom as IMEX opened its doors Tuesday morning.
Most buyers interviewed at the show flatly said they would not be able to hold events in Thailand.
The UK-based International Data Links Society (IDLS) was looking at Thailand for its conference next year, but communication secretary and director, Emma Jane Taylor, who visited Bangkok last August, said: “For us, due to the current situation, we won’t come to Thailand because a lot of our exhibitors and delegates get nervous about it. We had our conference in Athens in 2012 and because of the riots we lost a lot of delegates and exhibitors. I know they are not the same countries. But we would still delay going to Thailand – we’ll probably look at it for 2016.”
The IDLS congress, held over three days with between 400 and 600 pax, has never been held in Asia. The 2015 conference will now be held outside Asia as the other options in the region are “quite expensive”, she said.
The imposition of martial law is “not good” news for another incentive buyer from Australia who requested anonymity. She is about to confirm a 100-pax incentive in Bangkok and Phuket in March 2015, but is “hesitant about it now”, she said.
Before the news of the martial law, she was also looking at Thailand for events for end of next year.
“Thailand is not viable right now. I was shocked to hear about the martial law. The Thai DMC said it would be over soon, (and told) us to wait two to three months.
“We can divert now, as although planning has started, nothing has been signed. It’s far less stressful than being faced with the ups-and-downs of waiting two months before deciding – too hard,” she said.
Thai sellers said they had anticipated the move but did not expect it to happen so soon. Destination Asia Thailand deputy managing director, Wanchai Thavornthaveekul, said: “This actually could be good. We don’t have a proper (government) and it’s meant to keep the country safe. The locals understand that and it is our job to make buyers understand the situation. We’re glad the announcement came while we are still here to help explain the situation to buyers, rather than after IMEX.
“It’s hard to say if we’ve received cancellations as this just happened (yesterday) morning,” he said. Wanchai said his 280-300 pax corporate meeting from Ireland, with Asia-Pacific participants, to be held over three days in Bangkok in June, is still going on.
Suwat Jirahswakedilok, executive director of Oriental Events – the official agency for the Federation of International Pharmaceutical Congress to be held at BITEC end-August — said the congress would still go on. “They said they will keep it as planned, as it’s almost in the last stages of preparation already. Except of course something happens that makes the situation as bad as, say, Syria or Ukraine, then we’re ‘dead’,” he said.
Suwat was more upset about the “loss of opportunities” for future meetings. “If the situation in Thailand does not worsen, we can expect business to materialise again earliest in the first quarter of 2015,” he said.
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