Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) in Thailand have helped bring revenue and investment into the country, and created more jobs in related industries, e.g. contractors, freight forwarders, restaurants, hotels, tour agents, shopping centers, etc. Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), as the government agency tasked with developing Thailand’s MICE industry, has launched an urgent program to encourage international MICE travelers to confidently choose Thailand as their event destination and also to expand the domestic MICE market.

Increasing domestic MICE events is regarded as another way to boost Thailand’s economy, especially during the economic slowdown. To achieve this, TCEB is currently evaluating the behavior and spending patterns of domestic MICE travelers so as to initiate the best policy and tailor a campaign capable of stimulating the domestic MICE market.

TCEB has undertaken a qualitative analysis of the domestic MICE market, which will be followed by a quantitative analysis to complete the comprehension.

The qualitative analysis was carried our under two formats: 1) one-on-one in-depth interviews of decision makers involved in organising meetings/ seminars, each one hour long; 2) 2-hour focus group discussions with five separate groups, each consisting of 4-6 persons from organisations of defined scale and target groups.

The qualitative analysis revealed the nature of the domestic MICE market, participants’ needs and the objectives of event organisers as follows: