Thailand plans ASEAN Festival

BANGKOK Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau will propose to the Thai Cabinet, next month, to host an ASEAN Festival, by year-end.
Speaking at the Thailand’s Strategic Direction for Festivals and Events conference, last Friday, TCEB’s Strategic and Business Development vice president, Supawan Teerarat, told media that the bureau and 21 organisations from the public and private sectors agreed that Thailand should host the first-ever ASEAN Festival, this December, to boost travel at the end of the year.
“The first-ever ASEAN Festival would carry the theme, Countdown to AEC, and should be held in Bangkok throughout December to strengthen confidence and reinforce the country’s positive image as a hub for festivals and events.”
inside no 1The plan is to invite ASEAN member countries ( plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand) to organise pavilions highlighting products under four categories; arts and culture, creativity and lifestyle, entertainment, tourism and sports.
It will also include an “AEC Expo” for trade and investment for both B2B and B2C sectors.
A proposal on the project will go the Cabinet for approval, but it gives only nine months to pull off the exercise. Usually, expos and regional festivals of this nature would take two years to execute.
TCEB makes the usual wild attendance estimates. This time it estimates 6 to 10 million domestic and international visitors particularly from ASEAN would attend the festival.
“The project is expected to encourage the growth of foreign festival goers up from an average of 3% to 5% to 10% in the long run,” the TCEB executive claimed.
The festival could be hosted annually with a different theme each year, but again that is a highly ambitious target and would depend on how the inaugural event sourced revenue and gained sponsorships. The alternative would be to subsidise the event from government budgets.
To make it a success the project requires the active support of varied players. TCEB claims it has the following on board: Ministry of Culture; Bangkok Metropolitan Administration; Tourism Authority of Thailand; Thailand Chamber of Commerce; Thai Hotels Association; Thailand Incentive & Convention Association; Thai Exhibition Association; Advertising Association of Thailand; Bangkok Riverside Marketing Partnership; BEC-Tero Entertainment PCL; Event Management Association, and Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association.

sourced:ttrweekly.com