Upgrades to meet growing demand

With the completion of The Challenger hall in the third quarter of 2005, IMPACTnow has 160,000 sqm of indoor exhibition space and more than 40,000 sqm of convention space. Challenger, built at a cost of US$127 million is being billed as the world's largest columnfree exhibition hall. At 459 metres long, 131 metres wide and 16 metres high, the giant venue's floor area of 60,220 sqm is larger than eight football fields. IMPACT also added the Universal Ballroom, which it is touting as 'the grandest in Thailand' with 5,000 sqm of column-free space and a 20-metre-high ceiling. Located next to the exhibition areas with separate drop-off points and parking, it will have 10 breakout rooms and a grand foyer for VIP guests and visitors. There are also plans to build a hotel of 800 rooms and an entertainment complex. IMPACTofficials say they needed the extra space to handle the large number of big events scheduled for the complex, including the 2008 Lions caucus which will bring together an estimated 30,000 members from around the world. Challenger has already received bookings for the next three years. About 40 per cent of the centre's existing business comes from the Thai government. Cautious outlook Across town, Thailand's second big convention facility, the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre, or BITEC, has gained considerably from the growth of the trade exhibitions sector because of its position to the east of Bangkok, near Thailand's industrial heartland, the Eastern Seaboard. Its CEO, Dr Prasarn Bhiraj Buri, says the new year was shaping up as a strong one. "TCEB has had a significant impact in promoting CEI for Thailand and the results of its efforts should bear fruit in 2006 and beyond," he says. Still, he says, BITEC is taking a conservative outlook. Prasarn says the centre, whose main event hall offers a total of 36,000 sqm of space, had completed designs for its Phase Two extension although it was taking a waitand- see position for now due to the number of new meeting facilities that had come up in Bangkok in the last year and the mixed economic outlook. "The factors governing the growth of new trade exhibitions, premium local exhibitions and large-scale international conferences (BITEC's prime market sectors) are complex and they take time to develop," he says. "An expansion would also need to consider the availability of good manpower resources that would be able to sustain a premium service in the additional facilities and to the new clientele that would use these new (additional) facilities." Nevertheless, the convention centre hasn't been standing still. In March 2005 it completed a round of upgrades, spending US$13 million to add 15,000 sqm of parking space for 780 cars, increasing the total car-park capacity to 4,700 cars. A new press centre was opened to facilitate the work of the media covering events at the venue and a digital signage solutions system was added to make it easier for delegates and visitors to get around the site. The purchase of boom lifts has allowed better placement of equipment on the venue's high ceilings. Accessibility to the site has also been vastly improved, thanks to the opening of a link to the Bang Na-Chon Buri tollway in the middle of 2005, and more flyovers at the nearby intersection that has eased the congestion at one of Bangkok's worst bottlenecks. Among the first big events it will stage this year is the Million Dollar Round Table conference in February, which will bring 7,000 members of the life insurance and financial services association to Bangkok for three days. Rising competitions The battle among facilities is heating up downtown as well, where for more than a decade the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) has held sway. The nearly complete Royal Paragon Hall Exhibition and Convention Centre, situated on the fifth floor of the recently opened and very swank Siam Paragon shopping mall, will offer a 12,000 sqm convention and meeting centre. It will feature three main halls, five breakout rooms, a VIPlounge and a backstage function area. Its launch date is scheduled for February, when it will host the grand opening of the Bangkok International Film Festival. The Royal Paragon Hall's central location and proximity to Bangkok's main Rajprasong shopping district and some of the capital's best hotels will give it an edge over other convention facilities in Bangkok, especially for business groups and incentive tours. But the advantage won't last for long. In little over a year, the 505-room five-star Central World Hotel Bangkok, being marketed as one of the biggest convention hotel projects in Asia- Pacific will open for business, offering as much as 20,000 sqm of space for functions, one-quarter of which will be column-free. It is expected to be able to accommodate as many as 6,000 delegates. The US$64 million project, which will be part of the Central World Plaza complex, will be less than a kilometre from the Royal Paragon Hall. Not to be left behind, the governmentowned QSNCC is considering plans to add another 40,000 sqm of multipurpose convention and exhibition space, adding to its present tally of 18,000 sqm. "What you are seeing now is the niching of the facilities in Bangkok," Gandhi says. "BITEC is doing more trade exhibitions because of its proximity to the industrial estates on the Eastern Seaboard, while the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre is attracting more conventions and professional association meetings." At present, QSNCC, Thailand's first purpose- built convention centre, has 60,000 sqm of useable floor space. Peerapong says TCEB is keen to lure more of the medium-sized professional meetings that QSNCC regularly snares. "For the conventions sector we will focus more on association meetings, giving extra attention to healthcare, scientific and educational associations. Our strategy is to liaise with and encourage the active participation of similar local associations in Thailand by inviting their regional and global chapters to bring their conventions here," he says. New hotels Expectations that the long-awaited Suvarnabhumi Airport will soon be complete have helped fuel something of a boom in hotel construction, particularly of the business kind, in the last year. Thirty new hotels are expected to open their doors to business in the kingdom in 2006, adding 20,000 rooms, according to the Thai Hotels Association. Of these, 12,000, or 60 per cent, are planned for the capital. Many of them are familiar names to business travellers and the new hotels will carry monikers such as the Hilton Millennium, The Regent Sukhumvit and Park Plaza brand of the Radisson Group, Holiday Inn Sukhumvit and Millennium Le Méridien. There will also be three Ibis brand hotels from the Accor Group and a Novotel Suvanabhumi Airport Hotel. Chalong Anunyapisit, general manager of the Radisson Hotel Bangkok says the new Bangkok hotels will grow in line with more international arrivals, particularly business people and incentive travellers. "Thailand has had success in forging trade agreement with several countries. This will help the country brining in more business travellers," Chalong says