Thailand’s business travel bounce-back: TCEB predicts 2024 revival, 2019 return by 2025-26

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) forecasts a business travel sector revival by 2024, with 23.2 million travellers expected. However, it predicts a business travel return to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 only by 2025 or 2026 due to global economic unpredictability.

TCEB’s president, Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, revealed that their business travel revival strategy will focus on stimulating international exhibitions, major events, and festivals, which have demonstrated rapid growth. Conversely, the recovery of domestic meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) has been more gradual.

In the financial year ending September 2023, the MICE industry accrued revenue of 101 billion baht from 17.4 million business travellers. These figures encompass both foreign and domestic markets, according to Chiruit.

Duangdej Yuaikwarmdee, TCEB’s director of exhibitions, declared that international exhibitions were the most lucrative segment of the international market. In fact, they generated a revenue of 17.7 billion baht, surpassing the figures recorded in 2019, reported Bangkok Post.

by Alex Morgan

Picture courtesy of Florian Wehde, Unsplash

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-10-25

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