AKAPOL Sorasuchart's resignation as Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) president has not thrown a spanner into the works for the bureau, which has its hands full this year with the new Destination of Choices campaign, a yearlong schedule of trade roadshows, and preparations already underway for 2013 Year of MICE.

Puripan Bunnag, senior manager-sales & marketing, Meetings Industry Department, TCEB, told TTG Asia e-Daily in an email interview that nothing had changed since Akapol’s resignation, which had been linked to a struggle against the tourism ministry’s efforts to take control of the bureau and the cancellation of its annual budget (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 29, 2012).

“There are no changes so far, as each department is still running its own project according to plan,” said Puripan.

“The policy is to carry on (with) the Destination of Choices campaign through our fiscal year up to September. The (international) roadshows that we have organised will stay the same.”

TCEB’s Destination of Choices follows up on 2011’s Believe in Thailand campaign, and seeks to highlight the various Thai MICE cities and their ability to support different business events.

This year, the bureau is scheduled to participate in several trade shows including IT&CM China in April and Korea MICE Expo in July, as well as roadshows to Japan, Russia, Europe, China and Vietnam, to achieve its target of 60 billion baht in revenue and 750,000 overseas arrivals for MICE.

Meanwhile, TCEB is still developing an action plan for the 2013 Year of MICE campaign, with input from local industry stakeholders. ­