Face-to-Face: Chatchawal Supachayanont
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This week, Chatchawal Supachayanont, General Manager of the Dusit Thani Pattaya, talks about his hotel and the MICE industry…
Q) What are the main markets for the Dusit Thani Pattaya
We have a strong focus on the MICE and corporate markets, which comprise about 60% of our total business, along with leisure, which makes up the other 40%. Dusit Thani Pattaya is very popular with the domestic MICE market, due to our 457 rooms, large convention facilities and location close to Bangkok. But we also have good business from the international markets too, with groups from countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and India. The UK is also a good FIT market, and we get a lot of repeat guests from the country. People say the UK is declining but we’re certainly not seeing that.
Q) You mentioned your MICE facilities; what does the hotel offer?
Yes, we host group events most weekends. We’re able to handle groups of up to 500 for incentives, conventions, weddings, team-building, product launches etc. With our 2,400m² Napalai Convention Hall and 14 separate meeting rooms, we have the second biggest convention facilities in Pattaya. And with our private beach, outdoor event space and our dedicated event staff, we can handle any type of event.
Naturally most of our events are from the domestic market, but we are seeing more international business, especially from other Asian countries like Singapore. Weddings are becoming very popular, and we have a very popular outdoor event area called ‘The Point’ which overlooks the Gulf of Thailand and is extremely popular with wedding planners.
Q) Have you catered to many Indian weddings?
Yes, we have held many big Indian weddings, some with up to 200 or 300 guests. This is becoming a very big market for Thailand and we have the right facilities to cater for big groups like this.
Q) And what about the other major emerging markets, like China?
China is coming on strong. It’s a big market for Dusit International, and it’s a high-spending market as well. We’re seeing some good MICE and leisure business from China, and have introduced new Chinese-speaking guest relations staff to cater for the market. Russia is also a growing market, and Pattaya is a very popular winter destination for Russian holidaymakers.
But Pattaya is booming with all markets. The city is just an hour’s drive from Bangkok’s Suvaranbhumi airport and has a lot of new attractions coming up, such as the Cartoon Network theme park. It is definitely changing into more of a family destination, and we’re seeing a lot of interest from many international markets, both traditional and emerging.
Q) What development plans do you have for the hotel over the coming months?
We’ve just completed a renovation of our Grand Club and Deluxe rooms, as well as our swimming pool. Now we plan to upgrade the rest of the rooms and our ballroom. We spend approximately THB80 million (US$2.6m) every year revamping the hotel. We were one of the original hotels in Pattaya, so we must continually invest to keep up with the competition.
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