Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that number of MICE events held in the fourth quarter of 2018 increased by 83 year-on-year to 461, comprising 429 meetings & conferences, 22 exhibitions and 10 incentives. Number of participants and attendees was 736,000, up by 5.8%. For the whole year of 2018, number of MICE events went up by 46 year-on-year to 1,427, including 1,342 meetings & conferences (+57), 60 exhibitions (+9) and 25 incentives (-20). Number of participants and attendees reached 2,122,000, up by 11.6% year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter, number of meetings & conferences went up by 75 year-on-year, whereas number of participants fell by 10.1% to 79,000. Among the meetings & conferences, those with a duration of 4 hours or more totalled 282, and number of participants dropped by 16.0% to 65,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences shortened by 0.2 day year-on-year to 1.4 days, while total floor area used expanded by 42.9% to 462,000 m2.
The 22 exhibitions in the fourth quarter (+4) attracted 655,000 attendees, up by 10.8% year-on-year; exhibitions organised by non-government organisations totalled 20, which drew 531,000 attendees, an increase of 15.6%. The average duration of the exhibitions extended by 0.1 day to 3.4 days, and total floor area used was 187,000 m2, up by 23.1%. Number of incentives rose by 4 whereas number of participants declined by 89.2% to 1,770. The average duration of these incentives was 2.8 days, down by 0.5 day.
According to the information provided by the 22 exhibition organisers in the fourth quarter, their receipts and expenditure amounted to MOP 82.33 million and MOP 124 million respectively. The 20 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations recorded MOP 79.84 million in receipts, of which MOP 61.17 million (76.6% of total) were generated from financial support from the government and other organisations, and MOP 16.13 million (20.2%) came from rental of exhibition booths. Expenditure of these exhibitions amounted to MOP 89.97 million, with MOP 26.83 million (29.8% of total) being incurred on production, construction & decoration. Meanwhile, exhibition organisers totalled 2,241 in the fourth quarter, down slightly by 0.4% year-on-year, and number of professional visitors dropped by 8.2% to 46,000.
For the whole year of 2018, participants of meetings & conferences totalled 296,000, up by 20.5% year-on-year; those attending meetings & conferences with 200 participants or more increased by 24.3% to 239,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences went down by 0.2 day year-on-year to 1.4 days, whereas total floor area used expanded by 40.5% to 1,698,000 m2. Number of exhibition attendees rose by 10.0% year-on-year to 1,769,000 in 2018, with 1,486,000 attendees (+12.7%) recorded in the 53 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations. The average duration of the exhibitions remained the same year-on-year, at 3.4 days, and the total floor area used increased by 15.2% to 347,000 m2. The incentives attracted 56,000 participants, an increase of 17.7% year-on-year; their average duration dropped by 0.5 day to 2.6 days, whereas total floor area used rose by 13.5% to 388,000 m2.
In accordance with the information collected from the 60 exhibition organisers in 2018, their receipts and expenditure amounted to MOP 189 million and MOP 248 million respectively. The 53 exhibitions held by non-government organisations generated MOP 181 million in receipts, of which 57.1% came from rental of exhibition booths (MOP 103 million), whereas financial support from the government and other organisations (MOP 69.88 million) took up 38.7%, down by 1.9 percentage points as compared to 2017 (40.6%). These exhibitions incurred MOP 140 million in expenditure, with production, construction & decoration (MOP 40.58 million), publicity & public relations (MOP 23.04 million) and rental paid for venue (MOP 21.49 million) accounting for 29.0%, 16.5% and 15.4% of the total respectively. Net receipts of the exhibitions held by non-government organisations stood at MOP 40.74 million. In order to analyse the marketisation of the exhibition industry, financial support from the government and other organisations were excluded from net receipts and a negative value of MOP 29.15 million was recorded; yet, it was still an improvement from the negative amount of MOP 38.63 million in 2017.
In 2018, there were 5,618 exhibitors participating in the exhibitions, with 25.4% of them coming from Mainland China and 39.6% from Macao. Professional visitors totalled 98,000 and 54.1% of them were local visitors. As regards the exhibitions organised by non-government organisations, there were 3,204 exhibitors and the majority of them were from Macao (46.3% of total) and Hong Kong (27.9%). These exhibitions attracted 77,000 professional visitors, most of whom were from Macao (58.7%). For the whole year of 2018, according to the information provided by the 2,612 interviewed exhibitors, 97.7% of their receipts were generated from sales of products; meanwhile, rental paid for exhibition booths and decoration & construction constituted 55.5% and 29.7% of their expenditure respectively.