Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 327 MICE events were held in the second quarter of 2018, including 316 meetings & conferences, 9 exhibitions and 2 incentives. Total number of events decreased by 6 year-on-year, while number of participants and attendees increased by 1.7% to 411,000.
Number of meetings & conferences held in the second quarter increased by 8 year-on-year; number of participants soared by 121.0% to 98,000, attributable to an upsurge of 171.3% in participants (85,000) attending meetings & conferences with 200 participants or more (69). Meetings & conferences of 4 hours or more totalled 220, up by 25 year-on-year, and number of participants leapt by 158.6% to 90,000. The overall average duration of the meetings & conferences held stable year-on-year, at 1.4 days; total floor area used grew by 32.7% to 449,000 m2.
Number of exhibitions held in the second quarter decreased by 2 year-on-year, with number of attendees dropping by 12.4% to 308,000. Exhibitions organised by non-government organisations totalled 7 and number of attendees dropped by 24.7% to 258,000. The overall average duration of the exhibitions was 3.8 days, the same as in the second quarter of 2017; total floor area used fell by 3.3% to 81,000 m2. Number of incentives went down by 12 year-on-year and number of participants decreased by 37.9% to 5,380. The average duration of the incentives rose by 0.7 day year-on-year to 3.8 days; total floor area used increased by 9.1% to 24,000 m2.
According to the information provided by the 9 exhibition organisers in the second quarter, receipts of the exhibitions amounted to MOP 82.66 million, with 91.3% generating from rental of exhibition booths (MOP 75.49 million); expenditure totalled MOP 69.64 million, mainly incurred on publicity & public relations (MOP 14.84 million) and production, construction & decoration (MOP 13.55 million), accounting for 21.3% and 19.4% respectively of the total. Receipts and expenditure of the 7 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations amounted to MOP 78.60 million and MOP 23.00 million respectively; 91.2% of the receipts were generated from rental of exhibition booths, and 2.8% were financial support from the government and other organisations, down by 1.1 percentage points from 3.9% in the second quarter of 2017. Expenditure of these exhibitions was mostly spent on rental paid for the venue (25.2% of total) and production, construction & decoration (24.3%).
The exhibitions in the second quarter attracted 1,525 exhibitors, and 34.0% of them came from Mainland China. Professional visitors totalled 19,000, with 20.6% coming from Mainland China and 24.6% from Macao. Regarding the exhibitions organised by non-government organisations, 43.2% of the exhibitors (609) were from Hong Kong, and professional visitors (10,000) were mainly from Macao, taking up 26.2% of the total.
Information from 541 interviewed exhibitors in the second quarter indicated that 98.4% of their receipts came from sales of products, while rental paid for exhibition booths accounted for 54.2% of their expenditure. Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, their satisfaction towards various facilities and services increased quarter-to-quarter; over 80.0% of the exhibitors complimented on the professionalism (83.0%), work efficiency & attitude (82.7%) and language skills (82.1%) of venue staff, up by 8.5 percentage points, 8.3 percentage points and 5.0 percentage points respectively. Among the exhibitors who had used services rendered by local companies, 83.0% of them were satisfied with the services and 80.6% were gratified with the arrangements of local companies, up by 7.0 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points respectively quarter-to-quarter. Meanwhile, 65.4% of the exhibitors were satisfied with the promotion of the exhibitions, up by 5.2 percentage points quarter-to-quarter.
In the first half year of 2018, a total of 655 MICE events were held, down by 44 year-on-year, whereas total number of participants and attendees increased by 10.0% to 689,000. Meetings & conferences totalled 630, down by 22 year-on-year; number of participants surged by 71.8% to 169,000, with those attending meetings & conferences of 4 hours or more (444) soaring by 97.2% to 155,000. Exhibitions went up by 1 year-on-year to 19, while number of attendees fell by 2.7% to 501,000; number of exhibitions organised by non-government organisations remained at 17, with number of attendees (450,000) dropping by 10.8%. Incentives went down by 23 year-on-year to 6, whereas number of participants (19,000) recorded an increase of 44.4%. In accordance with the information collected from the 19 exhibition organisers in the first half year, receipts and expenditure of these exhibitions amounted to MOP 89.97 million and MOP 77.59 million respectively. The receipts were primarily generated from rental of exhibition booths (MOP 81.19 million), while most of the expenditure was spent on publicity & public relations (MOP 17.55 million) and production, construction & decoration (MOP 16.12 million). Receipts of the 17 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations totalled MOP 85.92 million. After deducting the expenditure (MOP 30.95 million) and financial support from the government and other organisations (MOP 3.77 million) from the receipts, these exhibitions recorded net receipts of MOP 51.19 million, an increase from MOP 38.55 million in the first half year of 2017.