Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 200 MICE events were held in the first quarter of 2015, down by 9 year-on-year. Total number of participants and attendees decreased by 15.8% to 249,180. Total floor area used for the events was 126,029 m2, and the average duration of events was 2.3 days. There were 190 meetings and conferences held in the first quarter of 2015, down by 6 year-on-year; number of participants dropped by 40.1% to 19,152 on account of a decrease in large-scale meetings. Meetings and conferences with 200 participants or more dropped by 7 year-on-year to 21, with the number of participants (10,618) tumbling by 54.5%. Floor area used for the meetings and conferences totalled 78,078 m2, and the average duration of events was 2.2 days. Concurrently, 10 exhibitions were held, down by 3 year-on-year, of which 9 exhibitions were organized by non-government organizations. Number of attendees decreased by 12.8% year-on-year to 230,028; in particular, 4 of the exhibitions each attracted 20,000 attendees or more. Floor area used for the exhibitions totalled 47,951 m2, and the average duration of exhibitions was 3.1 days. In accordance with information collected from 10 exhibition organizers, 7 exhibitions were repeated events having held in the first quarter of 2014. The interviewed organizers had 246 full-time staff engaged in the organization of the exhibitions. Receipts of the exhibitions amounted to MOP 14.15 million in the first quarter of 2015. Receipts of the exhibitions organized by non-government organizations (MOP 13.09 million) accounted for 92.5% of the total, of which rental of exhibition booths amounted to MOP 6.71 million (51.3% of total) and financial support from government or other organizations totalled MOP 6.38 million (48.7%). Expenditure of the exhibitions amounted to MOP 39.57 million, which was mainly spent on publicity & public relations (MOP 9.74 million), production, construction & decoration services (MOP 8.47 million) and accommodation, food & beverages (MOP 6.68 million). Expenditure of the exhibitions organized by non-government organizations (MOP 13.00 million) shared 32.8% of the total, mainly incurred on publicity & public relations (MOP 3.70 million) and rental of venue (MOP 3.45 million). A total of 958 exhibitors and 5,140 professional visitors attended the exhibitions, with the exhibition organized by the government attracting 462 exhibitors and 4,162 professional visitors, accounting for 48.2% and 81.0% of the total respectively. Most of the exhibitors came from Macao (35.1%) and Hong Kong (30.2%); meanwhile, professional visitors were mainly from Macao (45.5%) and Mainland China (30.4%). Information from 350 interviewed exhibitors indicated that sales of products took up a predominant share (93.0%) of the Receipts, while rental paid for exhibition booth and construction & decoration services accounted for 64.7% and 21.2% respectively of the Expenditure. Regarding interviewed exhibitors’ comments about the MICE venue and services, 76.3% were satisfied with the language skills of the venue staff and 74.6% were satisfied with their professionalism, up by 2.5 and 6.8 percentage points respectively quarter-to-quarter; on the other hand, 38.3% of the exhibitors were satisfied with the promotion of the exhibition, down by 3.7 percentage points quarter-to-quarter, while 19.1% considered that the promotion should be improved, up by 0.6 percentage points.
