App will build Pattaya MICE
July 18, 2012 by Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
Filed under News, Thailand
BANGKOK, 18 July 2012: Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau believes mobile phone applications will boost the country’s events business and it has embarked on a pilot project in Pattaya to prove it.
TCEB board member and acting president, Thongchai Sridama, said TCEB has teamed up with Pattaya City, MICE operators and Chonburi province to support Pattaya as a so-called MICE City through easy data access using smart phones and android phones applications.
The new “Prachum Muang Thai D-MICE @ Pattaya” application targets what market gurus call the “new gen,” people who adopt a modern lifestyle. The aim is to provide them with event information on their smart phones in the hope they will take the hint and organise a meeting in Pattaya.
The application categorises over 60 tourist attractions, conference venues, recreation spots, activities and MICE services provided in Pattaya into six categories under different conference formats.
Content is identical to what was presented in print manuals for the events business in the past, but the difficulty was distributing the manuals to decision makers in the market.
The categories are: Adventure and team building; history and culture; experiential, learning new skills; green awareness; Corporate Social Responsibility awareness; and luxury travel.
Mr Thongchai said: “Pattaya can support event themes in all these categories.
“We believe Prachum Muang Thai D-MICE @ Pattaya application is another important market mechanism that can help boost Pattaya’s MICE industry by 20%, from the overall events related visits of 1.7 million in 2011.”
Actually monitoring the success rate and linking it to the application will be more challenging than talking the numbers.
“This will help Thailand become the regional MICE city and build domestic events to 1.9 million individuals to create an income of Bt10.9 billion,” he said without explaining how the bureau would monitor progress.
Pattaya has been identified as one of four major cities in a five-year development plan (2012 to 2016) and is the first to get a mobile phone application.
Chiang Mai will follow and the question that TCEB will ultimately have to answer is how many people downloaded the application, open it and then booked a meeting?
For more details download D-MICE @ Pattaya application via http://www.meetinginthailand.com/mobile/download.
