In-home consumption of the product categories in the 12 months to March slipped 1.8 per cent.

Among the 92 key FMCG categories, food and beverages, such as ready-to-drink tea, instant tea and milk; household products and personal care products were experiencing a decline of 10-20 per cent in sales.

Consumers were likely to tighten their belts in purchasing fast-moving consumer goods in terms of the number of product categories, shopping frequency and spending per trip as a result of the sluggish economy and weak consumer confidence.

The slowing trend was expected to accelerate in the coming months, particularly in the Northeast, North and Central region, where FMCG sales have been dropping sharply since January.

“With such a trend, the situation in this market appears to be |maintained and getting worse,” he said.

In the year to March, the number of categories purchased per average household fell to 41 from 42.

Shopping frequencies at retail stores also dropped, for instance, |to 26 from 27 times a year at |hypermarkets/supermarkets, from 37 to 36 at convenience stores |and from 133 to 127 at traditional stores.

However, spending per trip rose to Bt275 from Bt252 at hypermarkets/supermarkets and to Bt95 from Bt93 at convenience stores.

Traditional stores were the |losers, with a dip to Bt51 per trip from Bt52 in March 2014.

“This showed that local consumers were concerned about their affordability while household debt remained at a high level,” he said.

Other findings were that most categories continued to see downsizing and a shift away from premium offers.

All brands should gain a better understanding of the key role of |various package sizes to lure customers to trial their products as well as to build their customer base, he added.

Meanwhile, the boom in online travel agencies is forcing some operators out of business.

Kaye Chon, professor in international hospitality management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said Thailand and many other countries faced some or all these new trends.

“As to the problem of skilled labour, this is not really a crisis for Thailand, but it is an obstacle here,” he said.

The country may, however, need to improve in the other three areas – crisis management, and responding to the challenges of demographic change and online travel agencies – he added.

This year’s regional integration under the Asean Economic Community is expected to help solve labour-shortage issues in some countries, including Thailand, he said.

As the Kingdom is the biggest tourist destination in the region, it has huge demand for skilled personnel in the hospitality sector, the academic said, adding that Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are major supply countries for labour within Asean.

Speaking at a conference on “Crisis Management and Business Continuity in the Tourism Industry: Perceptions of the Future”, held in Bangkok last week, Kaye also expressed concern about the effects of current crises on the hospitality sector.

He mentioned terrorism, political instability, unrest, natural calamities as well as aviation security as factors that had negatively affected the sector for years, on top of which there were now “human” issues such as generational change and labour shortages.

More than 280 delegates from 30 countries attended the event, most of them educators, researchers, industry leaders, partners and representatives of professional associations and government officials, as well as postgraduates and students.

In order to deal with unexpected problems, Kaye urged tourism authorities and all stakeholders to prepare contingency measures by training staff and managers at all organisations specifically in crisis management.

Moreover, the public and private sectors need to work closely together in this area, he stressed.

Hong Kong, for instance, gave the world one of the best-practice cases when it faced the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Tourism authorities and the public and private sectors established a special unit called Team Strategy Group to stop the problem spiralling out of control, and shortly after launched a “Hong Kong Live it Love it” campaign to restore confidence and rebuild tourism, he said.

Terrorism and crime can also involve schoolchildren, as has occurred in the United States, and such events can destroy a country’s image and tourism business, he said.

Governments and schools in other countries must learn from such events elsewhere around the world in order to prevent their own hospitality sectors being damaged, he suggested.

Dipra Jha, professor of hospitality, restaurant and tourism management at University of Nebraska Lincoln in the US, said economic instability worldwide was the new crisis for tourism.

Travelling is an indicator of people’s well-being, and they will generally only travel if they are not worried about economic problems, he added.

Some 51.3 per cent of respondents were freelance individuals, including retailers and those involved in agriculture, 25.4 per cent were salaried office workers, and 21.3 per cent were daily-wage workers.

The sample was split 52.5 per cent/47.5 per cent between women and men, with 76.3 per cent of respondents aged 26-45, around 13.3 per cent aged 20-25, and 10.4 per cent aged over 45.

GSB’s president and chief executive officer, Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, said the bank had decided to conduct its first GSI survey because it needed to ascertain the behaviour and opinion of grass-roots people and their level of confidence in the economy.

The bank will use the results as a tool to design products that match their demand, while it will also propose to the government that it be used as a data-base to make decisions on the introduction of financial packages that directly support the needs of the grass-roots segment of society, he said.

According to the survey, up to 76.6 per cent low-income earners benefited from the government’s measure to speed up the provision of a budget of Bt5 million per tambon, 72.9 per cent from the budget for victims of natural disasters in 2012-2014, and 71.7 per cent from village-fund loans measure.

However, while grass-roots people benefited from the government’s stimulus package to support them, most continued to be concerned about the state of the economy, with a GSI of just 44.9 points for April – well below the 50-point “optimism” mark.

This was out of concern about the economy still not recovering due to the drought, which has impacted on all agricultural products, with prices rising as a consequence, Chatchai explained.

This in turn impacts their cost of living, even though the inflation rate is still below 2 per cent.

“Although the rate of inflation had been in negative territory until April, it came in at plus 0.07 per cent that month. While this was the first positive number for 16 months, but those at the grass roots continued to believe that the prices of consumer and agricultural products were still rising when compared with their income,” he said.

However, 42.2 per cent of those surveyed believed that the economy would recover by the end of next year, and 30.8 per cent “had confidence” in its recovery during 2017, while 27 per cent believed that the economy would recover in the second half of this year, the bank’s chief said.

The bank will submit its GSI research results for the Finance Ministry and the government to use when considering measures that match the grass-roots’ needs.

For example, the latest measure to reduce the problem of low-income individuals using the services of loan sharks could come from the survey of what the grass-roots sector views as its main problems, he said.

The GSB has also developed its card system to include the use of a cash-payment card, enabling people to use plastic to reduce the amount of cash they use for purchases.

This also forms part of the move to the e-payment system in June.

“We set up the research centre early this year and plan to announce the research results [into grass-roots behaviour and needs] every month. This will be a tool for the government to manage the policy for grass-roots people,” Chatchai said.

Meanwhile, the GSB Research Centre forecasts Thai economic growth of 3.2 per cent this year, with a first-half year-on-year growth estimate of 3 per cent, and predicted expansion of 3.5 per cent in the second half, he added.

“Hong Kong has strengths and is unique in being an international trading city and also the gateway for investment in mainland China,” Zhang said.

Xi proposed the scheme to drive economic growth along and outside of the route over the coming decades. It was in response to investors’ need now to look for new opportunities in new industries and new regions.

China and Hong Kong held the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong to spread the word on their initiative to about 2,000 participants from around the world including giant companies from Thailand.

The scheme is focusing on the development of five major areas – infrastructure, finance, logistics, maritime and international trading.

The project spans more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, accounting for more than 60 per cent of the world’s population, more than 30 per cent of the world’s merchandise trade and about 30 per cent of the world’s GDP.

The initiative is also aimed at Southeast Asia, as the region is one of most attractive investment destinations in the world.

The establishment of the Asean Economic Community last year and Hong Kong’s negotiations for free trade agreements will create an enormous market that offers easier movement of goods, services, investment, capital and people across the region.

Businessmen from Asean countries including Thailand, however, urged China to relax foreign investment conditions and reduce trading barriers, as they experience difficulty dealing in import and export with China compared to Hong Kong, which is now an international free trade city.

They also suggested to operators in Hong Kong to consider customer-centricity in order to give business alliances satisfaction.

In turn, Asean needs to improve infrastructure and promote| small and medium businesses to the international market as well as China.

Asean entrepreneurs believe that they still have more room |to grow regionally so they can strengthen relations between China, Hong Kong and Asean.

CY Leung, chief executive |of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, said Hong Kong could serve as a “super-connector” between the mainland and the rest of the world in areas such as finance, investment, professional services, trade, logistics, culture, creativity, innovation and technology.

Zhang said the China National Development and Reform Commission in March of last year issued a vision and action plan on jointly building the belt and road and kicked off some projects.

“A package of major projects |has started with the building of |the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“Meanwhile, an overall plan is being made for the China-Mongolia-Russia corridor for some projects,” he said.

In pursuit of infrastructure connectivity, China’s international cooperation on production capacity is well underway in more than 10 key areas including equipment manufacturing, automobiles and electronics.

A thousand container trains have travelled among China, central Asia and Europe.

China’s 13th five-year plan has also greenlighted Macau to leverage its unique advantages to enhance its roles and functions in the country’s economic development and to open up to other countries, including the belt and road initiative.

Leung said Hong Kong is strengthening transportation |and logistics services including maritime, expanding trade and investment ties with belt and road countries, and working on free trade agreements and a taxation scheme.

“We proposed partnering with mainland Chinese enterprises, especially those from neighbouring provinces and regions, to establish and grow trade and commercial relations with the route,” he said.

Beyond economic relations, Hong Kong will play a role in |people-to-people and cultural exchanges through the routes, as the city is home to many community organisations such as trade associations, youth groups, think tanks and other non-governmental organisations.

Gregory So, secretary for |commerce and economic development, said Hong Kong offered investors the best option in terms of low and simple tax, free flow of information, corruption-free government, rule of law, independent judiciary, productivity of its |workforce, stability and security, free-port status, geographical convenience, and communications and transport infrastructure.