2014 Khonkaen Tourism Development

2014 Khonkaen Tourism Development 

Khon Kaen is growing as the major centre of commercial, investment, transportation and education of the northeastern region. With the policy on‘Economic Corridor Development Project’, Khon Kaen will be connected from Thailand with Myanmar, Laosand Vietnam through the 1,500 km of corridor. This will result in the enhancement of KhonKaen as the ‘Gateway to Indochina and southern China.’ Moreover, KhonKaen is promoted as one of Thailand’s three leading provinces to grow as ICT city, along with Chiang Mai and Phuket.

According to TCEB’s statistics, Khon Kaen’s MICE industry in 2012 was as high as 343 million baht, which included 327 million baht in international MICE and 15.36 million baht in domestic MICE.

Khon Kaen’s MICE industry is currently a part of the province’s 4-year Development Plan (2014 – 2017) which focuses on strategic directions to develop tourism infrastructure, activities and services and tourism revenue.

TCEB has collaborated with Khon Kaen province in creating the roadmap for MICE development in Khon Kaen during 2013-2016 by emphasizing three strategic directions including: Winning Events Strategy to maintain existing markets and expansion to target markets; Promotion Strategy to empower KhonKaen as the region’s first option for MICE; and Development Strategy to make KhonKaen a new MICE City with distinct uniqueness that is able to add value to the MICE industry through the creative economy.

Khon Kaen has had global experience in organising events that connected international events participants such as the APEC Ministerial Meeting, the International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Thai-ASEAN Trade Fair. With distinctive culture and gracious hospitality, Khon Kaen promises to deliver not only fun,exciting but also successful and memorable MICE events.

MICE Venues & Space

- Khon Kaen has 206hotels, which 5,263rooms,6 large-sized and 23 meduim-sized meeting centers.
- KhonKaen University Convention Centre is the largest convention centre in the northeastern region of Thailand. The centre has the capacity to cater up to 3,000 trade visitors and fair goers at a time.
- Several five-star hotels in Khon Kaen can accommodate more than 1,500 trade participants and meeting attendees.
- Centara Hotel and Convention Centre, a leading luxury hotel in KhonKaen, has a convention hall that can accommodate upto 2,000 participants and meeting rooms which can hold upto 60-120 attendants.
- Pullman Khon Kaen Raja Orchid Hotel has several conference rooms which can accommodate from 10 to 2,000 guests.
- Kosa Hotel Khon Kaen feature several sizes of conference and function rooms which altogether can support more than 1,000 people.
- Charoen Thani Khon Kaen Hotel has several meeting and conference rooms, and a large ballroom with the capacity to serve upto 1,300 attendants.

Infrastructure/ Transportation 

- Khon Kaen is a transportation junction for automobile traffic, railways and air travel.
- KhonKaen has an international airport, 8 kms from the central city. Routes include Bangkok – Khon Kaen, with a flight time of approximately 55 mins, 8 flights operate per day.
- Khon Kaen International Airport can serve 32 flights or 8,000 passengers daily.
- The private and public sectors in KhonKaen reached an agreement to promote Khon Kaen Airport as a complete international airport to serve domestic and international flights operated under aviation safety standard.
- Domestic airlines on service include Thai Airways (Bangkok – KhonKaen) and Kan Air (Chiang Mai – Khon Kaen)
- At present, Lao Central Airlines is the first international commercial airline to operate flights from Luang Prabang to Khon Kaen. It is expected that the opening of KhonKaen – Luang Prabang route will bring more than 500-800 foreign visitors each week.
- Cooperation to bring in other international airlines to Khon Kaen is underway which will elevate KhonKaen further as a conveniently accessible MICE destination.
- KhonKaen sits on a two major rail-routes: Nakorn Ratchasima – Khon Kaen, and the high-speed rail route, NakornRatchasima – NongKhai
- Development of new rail routes (tracks), Khon Kaen – Mahasakam – NakornPhanom.
- The government has put into place a development plan which includes a strategy to develop national transport infrastructure which connects the provinces of Thailand with 7 major routes including:
- Route 2: Bangkok – Saraburi – NakornRatchasima – KhonKaen – UdonThani – NongKhai
- Route 12: KhonKaen – Petchabun
- Route 23 (an offshoot of route 2) which passes through Ban Pai district of KhonKaen – Mahasarakam
- Route 201: KhonKaen – Chaiyapoom – Loei
- Route 207: KhonKaen – Buriram
- Route 208: KhonKaen – Mahasarakam
- Route 209: KhonKaen - Karasin
- Air conditioned passenger vehicles from KhonKaen –Vientiane operate every day.
- Quality and up-to-date MICE services are also available for everyone and qualified academic institutions in the province guarantee the quality of educated labors from unskilled, semi-skilled to skilled labors.