Vietnam wonderful destination for MICE

Vietnam destination, thailand’s leading event organising company, CM Organiser Plc (CMO), is intensively preparing to penetrate Vietnam’s market.

During an interview with Thanh Nien newspaper at the CMO head office in Bangkok, Deputy Director General of CMO Pichet Turongkinanon, said that Hoi An ancient town would be chosen by CMO to be the main place to attract MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) tourists.

Hoi An is a beautiful place – a wonderful world heritage. Located near Hue ancient capital city, Hoi An is a cultural heritage complex with mountains and the sea close at hand. Additionally, Hoi An is very near Thailand thanks to Highway No 9 and Huu Nghi Bridge, which link the three countries of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the East-West Corridor.

Hoi An Vietnam proves to be the most ideal choice for CMO and tourists as well, Mr Pichet said.

Mr Pichet said that CMO planned to spend Baht10mil (nearly $300,000) on a plan to penetrate Vietnam’s market. It plans to set up two branches in Vietnam under the mode of joint venture with a domestic partner. The first branch will be set up in Ho Chi Minh City, and be responsible for organising national events, while the branch in Hoi An will specialise in MICE tourism.

This model is similar to Bayon CM Organiser, the joint venture between CMO and Bayon Radio & Television in Cambodia. Bayon CM officially presented itself before the public late last year. It has two branches, one in Phnom Penh, specialising in organising government events and international conferences, and one in Siem Reap, serving MICE.

Having 20 years of experience in organising big events of national and international stature in Thailand, CMO is seeking a suitable Vietnamese partner which really has deep understanding of Vietnamese culture and arts.

“We have found two or three potential partners. We still have to look for more and consider thoroughly,” Mr Pichet said, stressing that the deep knowledge of Vietnamese traditional culture and arts would play an important role in the success of event organising.

According to Mr Pichet, Vietnam’s market seems to have a lot of potential with the annual growth rate of 22% in number of tourists. He said that the system of high-grade hotels which CMO can hire for organising events is better by far than in Cambodia.

More importantly, Mr Pichet said, Vietnam has made considerable progress in enacting transparent legal documents applied to foreign investors.

“I think our opportunity has come,” he said.

It is expected that CMO’s joint venture will make its debut in Ho Chi Minh City by the end of 2008.

(Source: TN)