TICA MICE UPDATE

NCC counts on stopgap events hall

NCC Management & Development, the venue management firm and operator of Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, expects a new convention hall at Samyan Mitrtown to offset income lost while rebuilding QSNCC.

President Sakchai Pattarapreechakul said the closure of QSNCC will result in a loss of revenue of up to 70%, as QSNCC is the company's core business.

The new QSNCC, however, will have more than three times the venue area.

QSNCC, situated on 53 rai, was shut down last month. After a total demolition, construction of the new QSNCC with an investment of 12 billion baht is due to start in September this year, with completion scheduled for the end of 2022.

From the total construction area of 280,000 square metres, the two-floor building will have a lettable area of 70,000 sq m, three times higher than the former QSNCC with only 20,000 sq m.

According to Mr Sakchai, the Samyan Mitrtown Hall, worth 500 million baht, will be on the fifth floor of the mixed-use project Samyan Mitrtown, developed by SET-listed Golden Land Property Development.

NCC signed a five-year contract with Golden Land to operate and manage the convention hall.

Scheduled to open in September this year, Samyan Mitrtown Hall will be a multi-purpose hall sized 5,000 sq m with a capacity of 3,000 persons. The main hall sized 2,000 sq m can serve 1,500-1,800 seats or 100 dining tables or 2,000 persons for cocktails.

The hall will also be able to be partitioned into two rooms, four adjoining breakout rooms, a VIP lounge, dressing rooms and backstage area.

Daily rental rate will be 200 baht per sq m, compared with 220 baht at the former QSNCC. A meeting room will have a rental rate of 1,300-1,500 baht per person per day, compared with 1,800 baht at hotels in inner-city locations.

"There is a lot of convention and exhibition supply, but they do not meet exhibitors' requirements," Mr Sakchai said. "The inner city supply is small in scale, mostly 1,000 sq m, while larger ones are outside the city and inconvenient for travel."

NCC's target markets are 25% each from exhibitions and seminars/meetings, 20% from special events, 15% from conventions and exhibitions and 15% from others.