Bangkok (Thailand) – January 23, 2018 (travelindex.com) – Industry experts announced at the Thailand Tourism Forum (TTF) 2018 that Bangkok is poised to become the world's next megacity. Within five years, the rapid expansion of Bangkok's subway network will open up unprecedented spaces in the city, creating enormous opportunities for the travel and tourism industry.

This has not escaped the attention of one of Thailand's most prominent property developers, Sansiri PLC, which will bring one of New York's most dynamic hotel brands, The Standard, to Bangkok – a significant move into the hotel sector as it strives to attract new, innovative brands to the city.

Sansiri CEO Apichart Chutrakul gave the opening interview of TTF 2018 at the InterContinental Bangkok to almost 700 delegates from the travel industry from Thailand and the entire region on the topic of “MEGACITY BANGKOK – A future landscape for tourism and hospitality”.

In his opening speech, the co-organizer of TTF 2018 and CEO of C9 Hotelworks said: “In just five years, the electric metro network in the greater Bangkok area will reach a length of 464 kilometers. This surpasses London with its 402-kilometer-long Underground and New York City with its 380-kilometer-long Metro. The great promise of the East has now become the new West. Crucially important will be the connection to the three international airports: Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, and U-Tapao.”

Jesper Palmqvist, Regional Director for Asia-Pacific at the global market research company STR, added that Bangkok is on a strong growth trajectory in terms of hotel performance and that infrastructure development will further support this trend. “After almost three years of stable growth, Bangkok has long since overcome the decline of 2014. By November 2017, RevPAR had increased by 3.4% year-on-year, against the backdrop of a considerable supply increase of 4.1%.”

“These impressive figures are based on 18 months of sustained, stable demand growth of around 5% following the recovery in 2015. Hotels were also able to increase their prices by more than 2%, despite the introduction of new competing products. But this is not just a short-term trend: In seven months of 2017, ten-year records were achieved in absolute RevPAR – a sign of the megacity’s very strong growth over the past decade.”

In addition to Apichart Chutrakul, CEO of Sansiri PLC, speakers and panelists at TTF 2018 included Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor Hotel Group; Supoj Chaiwatsirikul, Managing Director of ICONSIAM; Nikhom Jensiriratanakorn, Director of Horwath HTL; Thomas Schmelter, IHG's Director of Operations in Thailand and Indochina; Mike Batchelor, JLL's Managing Director of Investment Sales in Asia; Jesper Palmqvist, STR's Area Director for Asia Pacific; Thomas Schmelter, Director of Operations – Thailand and Indochina, IHG Group; and many more.

About the Thailand Tourism Forum: The Thailand Tourism Forum is an annual event held in January, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Thailand and leading hotel consultancy C9 Hotelworks. Now in its sixth year, the event attracts leading industry experts and a steadily growing number of attendees from across the region. The Thailand Tourism Forum offers attendees a unique opportunity to listen to industry leaders and experts engage in open discussions about the sector and to use a forum to analyze figures in more detail, assess risks, and learn more about key emerging tourism trends across all Thai destinations.