Iconsiam plans to attract more tourists through a mix of flashy events, international marketing and opening up the Chao Phraya River as a tourism hotspot.
The mall attracts 150,000 visitors a day on average, said Supoj Chaiwatsirikul, managing director of Iconsiam, a number the company is content with. He expects to see the figure rise by 10-20% by the end of the year.
To build appeal among tourists, the group wants Iconsiam to be a must-see destination in Bangkok, third behind the Grand Palace and Wat Arun.
The company plans to accomplish this by putting on extravagant events, such as the New Year's Eve countdown, which attracted about 200,000 people, 80,000 of whom arrived by boat.
Chinese New Year is expected to be another huge event at the shopping centre. Iconsiam's foreign marketing focus is on China, mainly through online social media ads.
Neighbours such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, in addition to India and Indonesia, are a secondary focus for overseas marketing.
"We are doing many online activities to build what we call 'pre-visit' recognition," Mr Supoj said. "The Chinese are definitely our target group."
Part of attracting tourists to Iconsiam is attracting them to the Chao Phraya River. Mr Supoj said the group wants to make it easier for tourists to get to the mall by boat from other tourism destinations like the Grand Palace. The mall is also working with boat operators to make the boats more eco-friendly.
"We want to add shared value to the Chao Phraya River," he said. "We are working with local communities, the private sector and government to attract more tourists and public events. We are also working the Tourism Authority of Thailand to build the river as a tourist destination."
Iconsiam has substantially increased boat traffic in its vicinity, and the extra activity sometimes creates congestion, especially for popular events.
The shopping centre also offers value-added tax refunds to tourists at the on-site 7-Eleven and at kiosks alongside shopping centres around Bangkok.
Unlike competitors such as Central Group, Iconsiam has not made e-commerce a top priority and it has no official plans to build an online retail platform, Mr Supoj said.
Iconsiam yesterday premiered a new fountain that it says is the longest in Southeast Asia, one of the complex's "seven wonders" -- a group of attractions that includes a museum, a planned auditorium and the under-construction Gold Line monorail link to the skytrain.
The fountain will be introduced through three multimedia shows, with lights projected onto the fountain and choreographed water jets.
"The fountain incorporates never-before-seen technology," said Carlos Pissarra, chief executive of Ghesa Water & Art, which was contracted to build the fountain.
