Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 267 MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions) events were held in the first quarter of 2011, a decrease of 64 year-on-year; total number of participants and attendees increased by 42% year-on-year to 127,194. However, the average duration decreased by 0.4 day in the first quarter of 2010 to 2.1 days. A total of 10 exhibitions were held in the first quarter of 2011, with 99,154 attendees and an average duration of 2.5 days. Meanwhile, 257 meetings & conferences were held, bringing together 28,040 participants and the average duration was 2.1 days. As regards subject of MICE events, the majority focused on Commerce, Trade & Management (119), IT & Other Technology (42) and Travel & Tourism (24). Analyzed by type, most of the events were Corporate Meetings (174), Government Meetings (29) and Association Meetings (28). There were 214 MICE events held in hotels, comprising 206 meetings & conferences and 8 exhibitions. The average duration decreased from 3.1 days in the first quarter of 2010 to 2.4 days; number of participants and attendees totalled 121,900, with 80% being exhibition attendees. In addition, 53 MICE events were held in convention & exhibition centres and other conference venues; the average duration stood at 1.1 days, bringing in 5,294 participants and attendees. Starting from 2011, coverage of MICE statistics is expanded to include exhibition organizers and exhibitors. In the first quarter of 2011, data were collected from 8 exhibition organizers (80% of total); concurrently, systematic sampling method was adopted to collect data from 51 exhibitors. According to the information collected, the majority (63%) of the exhibition organizers were local enterprises and 25% were from Hong Kong. Moreover, 88% of the organizers had experience of organizing exhibitions in Macao. In the first quarter of 2011, total revenue of the exhibition organizers amounted to MOP2,100,142 and total expenditure was MOP3,200,077. In respect to the interviewed exhibitors, 49% were exhibitors from Hong Kong and 31% were local exhibitors. Besides, 55% of the exhibitors were first time participants in Macao. Total revenue of the exhibitors amounted to MOP3,136,320 that came mainly from sales of products (87%); total expenditure was MOP1,141,261, with rental for exhibition booth accounting for 74%.
