Visit Thailand and get paid
It was always a favourite tourist destination for Indians. And now post the ASEAN-India free trade agreement, it promises to be one of the top business destinations, too.
Thailand, after years of looking to the West when organising trade fairs and business conferences, now wants to focus on India and China to bring in the moolah. “We made the mistake of wooing only the West. The recession made us realise that India was the land of opportunity,” says Supawan Teerarat, President of the government-run Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau.
“Bilateral trade between the two nations is now worth $5.9 billion, a figure we expect to double by 2011,” adds Pravit Sribanditmongkol, Secretary General of the Thailand Exhibition Association.
Thailand is, indeed, pulling out all stops to entice Indian business travellers. “They will be made to feel like royalty. If a chamber of commerce or a travel agency brings 15 or more visitors to any trade fair in Bangkok, we will pay each visitor $100 for the duration of their stay. All of them will also get one night’s complimentary stay at any hotel, along with free city tours and shopping vouchers,” Supawan says.
- In 2008, over 5.31 lakh Indian tourists landed in Thailand. Only 45,905 of them were business travellers.
- Globally, over 5 lakh business travellers are expected in Thailand in 2009, earning the country revenues of $1.2 billion.
- The average Indian business traveller spends $366 a day in Thailand, three times more than what an Indian tourist spends.
- To get more business from India, Indians attending trade fairs are being offered free stay, city tours and shopping vouchers.
Numbers of note
- $1.6: The average net salary per hour of workers in New Delhi as compared to $1.2 in Mumbai, according to a “Prices and Earnings” study by Swiss banking major UBS.
- Rs 1 lakh cr: Nationwide power outages cost Indians, enough to put up power plants with a capacity of 25,000 MW, or 20 per cent of the present generation level, according to a survey by Universal Consulting.
- #3: PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi’s ranking in the Forbes magazine’s annual “World's 100 Most Powerful Women” list. German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the list, with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and ICICI Bank CEO & MD Chanda Kochhar at 13 and 20, respectively.
- Rs 4.5 lakh cr: The amount of money the Government of India proposes to borrow in 2009-10 to support its infrastructure and other developmental projects.
