Panacea goes full-steam ahead in business events push

In the last quarter of 2016, luxury villa estate Panacea Koh Samui started focusing intently at the business events segment, and has made efforts via appointing sales reps, as well as conducting media briefings in target markets.

Panacea Koh Samui’s general manager, GS Chin, who was recently in Singapore for a media briefing, told TTGmice: “Up until recently, we catered mainly to families and FITs. Even though we are not a traditional hotel, we feel that we’re able to do business events too, especially in our biggest villa, which measures 4,700m2.”

Located on the northern side of Thailand’s Koh Samui, the estate is home to five villas – two four-bedroom, two five-bedroom and a six bedroom, each set in their own individual landscaped garden.

When asked if the property has hosted any business events such as C-suite meetings, Chin indicated that it is exactly what they are working towards.

“We have had two company retreat groups stay with us so far, but we haven’t held any business events yet.”

On how Panacea Koh Samui is planning to attract such clientele, Chin shared: “We try to sell them Panacea as a whole. It’s an entire retreat in itself, and can be combined as a holiday and meeting destination. We have a lot of inclusions and this makes us more competitive. For example, we provide complimentary yoga lessons, cooking classes, massage, free transportation, and of course, breakfast.”

He hopes to grow the business events segment by about 10 to 15 per cent this year.

The estate’s current client mix is made up mostly of Chinese (50 per cent), Australians and Americans.

“We want to cater to other countries in Asia. We now have a sales rep that covers the Singapore, China and Hong Kong markets, and have signed up a sales rep for the UK and Middle East markets. These will be the few immediate markets that we are concentrating on.”

Chin expressed keenness on Malaysia too, and said the retreat would look into the eventual “possibility of having a sales rep there”.

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