As visitors to Thailand quickly learn, Thais love fun (sanuk in Thai), more so than most people. Accordingly, theme parks are extremely popular in the Land of Smiles, and their numbers have been exploding in recent years, until recently to the great enjoyment of both Thai kids and young visitors to the Kingdom. Things have been changing recently, however.
Theme parks have come to the realization that they have great big, fun, diverse spaces, and that these spaces can easily be multi-purposed. Thus they’ve been developing their facilities with meetings and corporate groups in mind. They’ve hired staff to court MICE buyers and to work with event organizers to plan more playful events in their wonderlands.
The parks can be hired privately for memorable themed meetings of all types. For example, Siam Park City, known locally as Suan Siam, closed its doors to the public on October 11th to welcome 40,000 staff from Toyota. How many venues could handle a group this size in style, and show them all a good time?
Many of these theme parks, water parks, and resorts already contain so many diverse areas and zones that it’s surprising the corporate meeting avenue hasn’t been explored and developed further until recently. Siam Park City, for example, contains the following: an amusement park, a massive water park, a dinosaur museum, and even a learning zone. It is also an aviary, a botanical garden, an open zoo, and now, an exciting MICE venue.
Another popular park on the outskirts of Bangkok is Dream World, an excellent spot to hold networking functions, meetings, seminars, product launches, award presentations and gala dinners. And if you’re concerned about keeping the guests entertained, there are the shows: animal shows, Hollywood stars, street performers, and even SWAT teams. After all the excitement, your guests can chill out in the Love Garden, Fairy Tale Land, or Seven Wonders of the World.
Then there’s Fun City itself, Pattaya, where the world’s first Cartoon Network-themed waterpark was recently opened. Cartoon Network Amazone offers enticing group packages and exciting activities for unique corporate outings and teambuilding exercises guaranteed to coax smiles and elicit laughter from your hard-working crew. Their Brand Ambassador is standing by to assist with your corporate hospitality adventures.
A short 90-minute drive to the south of Bangkok takes you to Thailand’s most dynamic, newly emerging, tourist destination: Hua Hin and Cha-am. Long popular with Bangkokians escaping for the weekend, this area now draws legions of golfers, health and wellness seekers, and simply those looking for a more laid back, restful location than some of Thailand’s longer established hot spots.
The gorgeous Santorini Park in Cha-am is located on 60 rai of land and has a lovely design dominated by blues and whites, like the buildings on Santorini Island of Greece. Its ambience includes pop and modern art sculptures, dancing fountains and manmade waterfalls. There are more than a hundred gift shops and outlets for fashion, accessories, art and decor and handmade products.
Also available are restaurants, coffee shops, an outdoor zone for concerts, a weekend mart, and an amusement zone boasting facilities such as a Ferris wheel with 40-meter high double-decker carousel and G-Max reverse bungee, a giant swing and wall climbing. This place will certainly liven up any corporate outing.
Hua Hin also boasts the Black Mountain Water Park, one of the region’s favorite attractions, as well as the MICE-focused Vana Nava Hua Hin, Asia’s first water jungle. Packages are offered here with comfortable meeting facilities, daily breakfast, soothing relaxation with a spa discount, along with regular promotions at the associated Intercontinental Hua Hin Resort.
Obviously the conjunction of MICE and theme parks is generating diverse new possibilities for corporate meetings with a fun, new spin. Thailand has always encouraged splashing some pleasure into your business while here; the theme park angle is simply taking this concept to the next level.
SOURCE / TCEB
