Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 68 MICE events were held in the first quarter of 2021, including 61 meetings & conferences (-56 year-on-year) and 7 exhibitions (+4). On account of the increase in exhibitions, number of participants & attendees surged by 71.7% year-on-year to 138,000.
Number of participants in meetings & conferences declined by 61.5% year-on-year to 6,523 in the first quarter. Meetings & conferences with a duration of 4 hours or more totalled 36 (-47), with 4,529 participants (-67.0%). The average duration of the meetings & conferences shortened by 0.4 day year-on-year to 1.0 day, and the total floor area used dropped by 57.5% to 34,000 m². All of the 7 exhibitions were organised by non-government organisations and the number of attendees soared by 109.2% to 132,000. The average duration of the exhibitions in the first quarter went down by 0.1 day year-on-year to 2.9 days, whereas the total floor area used rose by 73.7% to 13,000 m².
According to the information on the 7 exhibitions provided by the organisers in the first quarter, their receipts and expenditure amounted to MOP6.22 million and MOP4.77 million respectively. Rental of exhibition booths accounted for 85.7% of the receipts, while installation of booths, decoration & audio-visual performance, etc. and publicity & public relations took up 34.8% and 31.8% of the expenditure respectively. After deducting expenditure as well as financial support from the government & organisations (MOP0.89 million) from receipts, these exhibitions recorded net receipts of MOP0.57 million, which represented a decrease of 47.7% as compared to the same quarter of 2020 (MOP1.08 million).
The exhibitions in the first quarter attracted a total of 420 exhibitors and 5,608 professional visitors, with locals comprising 94.5% and 95.6% of the respective total. In accordance with the information collected from 323 interviewed exhibitors, 89.0% of their receipts were generated from sales of goods, whereas 67.8% of their expenditure was mainly incurred on rental paid for exhibition booths.
Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, the proportions of exhibitors who were satisfied with the arrangements and the services of local companies both reached 92.6% in the first quarter, representing respective increases of 6.3 percentage points and 5.5 percentage points quarter-to-quarter. Meanwhile, the ratings for all other aspects recorded decreases, with the shares of exhibitors who complimented on the hospitality of exhibition organiser (73.7%), professionalism (80.3%) and work efficiency & attitude (80.6%) of the venue staff dropping by 6.8 percentage points, 5.6 percentage points and 5.2 percentage points respectively quarter-to-quarter.