Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that, as several events that had been scheduled for the third quarter of 2021 were postponed or cancelled amid the pandemic, number of MICE events in the quarter decreased by 76 quarter-to-quarter to 71; number of participants & attendees fell by 28.9% to 226,000. In comparison with the same quarter last year, MICE events increased by 3 while the number of participants & attendees dropped by 23.9%.
Number of meetings & conferences and incentives in the third quarter remained unchanged year-on-year at 58; however, number of participants leapt by 93.1% to 7,035. The average duration of the meetings & conferences and incentives extended by 0.3 day year-on-year to 1.0 day, and the total floor area used expanded by 132.6% to 42,000 m². Number of exhibitions in the third quarter grew by 3 year-on-year to 13, whereas the number of attendees fell by 25.3% to 219,000. Exhibitions organised by non-government organisations (11) went up by 1 and yet the number of attendees (203,000) declined by 30.8%. The average duration of the exhibitions shortened by 0.6 day year-on-year to 3.0 days, while the total floor area used surged by 69.3% to 67,000 m².
According to the information on the 13 exhibitions provided by the organisers, total receipts and expenditure amounted to MOP11.11 million and MOP36.10 million respectively. Receipts of the 11 exhibitions held by non-government organisations totalled MOP9.99 million, of which 78.2% were generated from rental of exhibition booths and 21.8% were financial support from government/organisations. Expenditure of these exhibitions added up to MOP13.15 million, with installation of booths, decoration & audio-visual performance, etc. accounting for 48.8% of the total. These exhibitions recorded a loss of MOP5.34 million in receipts after the deduction of expenditure and financial support from government/organisations.
There were 1,210 exhibitors participating in the exhibitions in the third quarter, with 66.4% of them being locals and 29.1% coming from mainland China. Professional visitors totalled 930, of whom 46.7% were locals and 53.0% came from mainland China. In accordance with the information collected from 501 interviewed exhibitors, their primary source of receipts was sales of goods (98.0% of total), whereas their expenditure was mainly incurred on publicity & public relations (44.7% of total) and rental paid for exhibition booths (31.9%). Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, their satisfaction towards various facilities and services registered varying degrees of increase compared to the second quarter. The shares of exhibitors who complimented on the promotion (86.0%) and hospitality (92.0%) of the exhibition organisers grew by 13.5 percentage points and 9.3 percentage points quarter-to-quarter respectively.
In the first three quarters of 2021, a total of 286 MICE events were held, an increase of 55 year-on-year; total number of participants & attendees soared by 71.0% to 683,000. Meetings & conferences (246) and exhibitions (35) went up by 32 and 20 year-on-year respectively, with the respective number of participants (30,000) and attendees (651,000) rising by 30.9% and 73.2%. According to the information on the 35 exhibitions in the first three quarters, their receipts and expenditure totalled MOP27.21 million and MOP50.64 million respectively. Receipts of the 33 exhibitions held by non-government organisations amounted to MOP26.08 million. These exhibitions posted a loss of MOP6.33 million in receipts after the deduction of expenditure (MOP27.69 million) and financial support from government/organisations (MOP4.73 million).