Bangkok--10 Nov--PITON Communications
The 26th Bangkok International Gift Fair and Bangkok International Houseware Fair (BIG&BIH) continues to be a favorite trade show for lifestyle products as it successfully attracted nearly 15,000 trade visitors including thousands of international buyers from 78 countries around the globe, despite the world’s financial crisis and warnings of political situation in Thailand.
The Department of Export Promotion, the Ministry of Commerce - as the fair organizer, revealed that the latest edition of BIG&BIH, held on October 14-19 this year, was participated by a number of 14,787 trade visitors - this includes 2,759 foreign buyers from 78 countries around the world. The top ten overseas visiting countries are Japan, U.S.A., Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, United Kingdom, France, India and Hong Kong.
Ms. Tricia Pontin and Ms. Lonie Bell, Co-Managing Director of 2 Funky 2 Co., Ltd. from Australia who first visited BIG&BIH last month said that although there has been warning from the Australian government of the political situation in Thailand, it did not affect their decision to come here since they have been to Thailand several times before and know that nothing would happen to them.
“We come to buy home decorative items for our store in Australia, and we are very satisfied with the products we see. There are plenty of hip and unique products and we will definitely come back again next year,” they added.
Another first-time visitor to BIG&BIH, Ms. Lisa Yurugi, a purchasing officer of Karinpia Co., Ltd. — a wholesaler of home textiles and home decorative products in Japan, also expressed her satisfaction with the exhibited products.
“I am very impressed with the quality and design of products exhibiting here. Although the price of the products is higher than my set budget, I will try to buy the products for high-end customers. If it works out well, I will definitely come back again next year.
Mr. Maurice Halliday, Managing Director, Broadstowe Textiles Co., Ltd. in UK who has been visiting BIG&BIH for over ten years also said that he always found some new items every single visit and that he always looks forward to coming back here.
“Thai designers have never failed to create something fresh and different, and I really like it.”
Meanwhile more than 50 percents of exhibitors said this October show was another successful event for them. The 6-days show has produced more than 700 million baht which is over its initial expectation of some 400-500 million baht.
Among those successful exhibitors is MS Natural Design Co., Ltd. — a local producer of palm tree trunk vases who first introduce their products to the market at the October show.
“We chose to launch our products at BIG&BIH because we know that there are representatives from hotels and resorts coming to the fair to source new decorative products. And so far, we are very happy to see that so many people are interested in our products. Buyers from Hong Kong and Brazil have already placed orders on the first day, which already exceeds our expectation,” said Ms. Saowaluck Makkhong, the Managing Director.
BIG&BIH October 2008 was participated by 661 exhibitors with a total of 1,772 exhibiting booths ranging from gifts, premiums, home decorative items, housewares, toys to stationery and office supplies. Along with Thai exhibitors are 35 overseas companies from cross Asia and beyond including Ghana, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and France.
BIG&BIH is held twice annually in April and October by the Department of Export Promotion, the Ministry of Commerce, with its purpose to create business and export opportunities for producers and exporters of gifts, premiums, home decorative items, housewares, toys, stationery and office supplies.
The next edition of BIG&BIH will be held on April 21-26, 2009 at the Hall 1-8, IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani. The first four days (April 21-24) are reserved for trade talks only, while April 25-26 are opened for the public. For more information, please visit www.bigandbih.com
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Buranii Chandraparnik, Rattiya Tosoonsnone, Janya Joycharoen