There have been several talks over the past few months about future developments for the airport of Hua Hin. The main topic is to position Hua Hin airport as an international airport, an initiative proposed by Hua Hin Airport and Phoenix Group, led by John Laroche and supported by the local authorities, the airport management, Tourism Authority of Thailand and the private sector. The other topic is the possible development of the airport as a lifestyle destination hub for the entire region, hoping to attract both local visitors and in the future international travelers, think of it as a small-scale multi-purpose center or venue accessible to all and not just an airport.
The initiative led by B-Concept Media Entertainment Group, aims at providing fairs, events, outdoor music festivals, shows, exhibitions, product launches, upper-scale food and beverage plaza, weekend markets, meetings, conferences and more, an ideal venue using the entirety of the airport itself including the runway and its hangar. B-Concept Media Entertainment Group, is a Bangkok-based full-service agency, managing advertising, branding, digital marketing, entertainment, events, media and ticket sales.
B-Concept’s CEO, Mr. William Kuipers, emphasized on the benefits such a development could bring to the region, aside from the existing activities Hua Hin is offering, the lifestyle destination hub would offer a range of different activities appealing to visitors from all age group. He adds! ¸We’re an innovative company with many ideas, we have the experience and the know-how to promote these ideas through our existing channels, database and media partners, after all marketing communication is our forte! Since we are well-established in Bangkok in the event sector, it is not impossible for us to add Hua Hin as the next stop, when we have celebrity performers, lecturers and personalities coming to Bangkok.
We view Hua Hin as a destination in its own right and we aspire to help promote the destination on a much larger scale. This project will bring the entire community together and together we can make this successful! We believe that such events would also attract international visitors who would want to join, boosting occupancy in hotels and patronizing local restaurants and bars.”
In addition, Mark Van Den Sanden, B-Concept’s Director of events, shared with us, as example, that they have contact with many international celebrities such as Black Pink, Justin Bieber, BTS and of course Thai celebrities such as Tata Young, Klear, just to mention a few. “We work together with solid partners from various industry trades in Thailand interested to join this venture and we’re also looking for local entrepreneurs, traders, hotels and restaurateurs to join our lifestyle destination hub project, some have already expressed their interest to be part of it. Furthermore, we are in talks with local DMCs to provide transportations and ticketing to visitors,” said Mark Van Den Sanden.
He also mentioned that they are developing an application that would allow visitors to book tickets and transfers from their location to the venue and back, which would ease the traffic in front of the airport, bringing more business to transport service providers. There are of course a few more challenges that need ironing out with the local authorities, such as access to the airport for visitors coming by car, parking facilities, fire, health and road safety, transfers from the car park to the venue, public utilities…etc.
“We feel confident that we can resolve these challenges soon enough and be ready to launch this concept as early as beginning of 2022,” said William Kuipers. The question remains though, whether or not this project will see light and get all the support needed from the local authorities before 2022? This project would be a nice addition to the region positioning Hua Hin as a destination in its own right.
