Thailand: Index says event industry to grow in 2022

• Jan 13, 2022

Index Creative Village Plc, an event organiser and marketing service company, expects the overall event industry to resume growth this year after two consecutive years of decline due to the pandemic.

Kriengkrai Kanjanapokin, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said Thailand’s event industry dropped from 14-15 billion baht in value in 2019 to 7 billion baht and 2-3 billion baht in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

He attributed the drop largely to the impact of the pandemic which led the government to limit the number of people able to participate in events and specific types of events. Clients have also slashed event budgets because consumers have less purchasing power.

“The overall event business saw the worst performance in 2021,” he said. “Although we don’t know yet what will happen in the future due to the new Covid variant, we believe that nothing is worse than last year.”

Mr Kriengkrai said the event industry is expected to gradually recover to about 4 billion baht this year while calling on the government to come up with more reasonable restriction plans.

With a widened vaccination coverage, the order that limits the number of people at 500 participants per event should be revised, based on the space capacity of each event, he said.

As well, he proposed the daily updates on Covid-19 cases be not published to lessen panic while restrictions on foreign tourists should be relaxed.

“Although the Omicron variant has rapidly spread in Thailand, the death toll remains relatively low on a daily basis. If the government adjusted its restriction measures to align with the number of inoculated people, we believe both the economy and the event business can move on,” he said.

In 2021, Index reported total revenue of 577.44 million baht, up 33% from 2020. Of the total revenue, 203.44 million baht came from marketing services, 320.27 million baht from creative business development and the remaining 53.72 million baht came from its own projects.

With an optimistic outlook for the event business this year, Mr Kriengkrai aims to grow his company’s revenue by 60% this year.

Of the total, 370.85 million baht will come from marketing services, 244.09 million baht from its own projects and the remainder from creative business development.

“Due to the uncertainties about the government’s Covid-19 control measures, brands and companies are not yet confident to hold events, therefore we will continue to put focus on creating our own projects rather than focusing on managing and arranging event organising for corporate companies, and diversify to new businesses,” Mr Kriengkrai said.

Regarding its own projects, the company plans to develop event platforms that not only give experience to event participants, particularly the young generation, but also provide content for their stories via social media, he said.

“Despite the overall poor industry last year, our revenue increased by 33% due to creation of our own events,” he said, adding that all events including the House Illumination at CentralWorld, Muangboran Light Fest, Forest of Illumination at Kirimaya and Tha Maharaj Illumination drew a combined 100,000 participants.

The company expects the number of participants at its own events this year to double to 200,000.

The company plans to hold 20 of its own new events throughout this year such as the Kingdom of Lights, Wind Toy Fest, Thailand International Lantern & Food Festival and Double Festival at Singha Park.

It will also resume exhibitions in Cambodia and Thailand. In addition, the company diversified into the restaurant business, opening Hookrajong Haus at its office in Praditmanutham.

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2246547/index-says-event-industry-to-grow-in-2022