Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 224 MICE events were held in the second quarter of 2015, up by 54 year-on-year. Yet, total number of participants and attendees dropped by 21.7% to 404,982 attributable to a decrease in large-scale exhibitions. Total floor area used for the events was 153,167 m2, and the average duration of events was 2.3 days. There were 208 meetings and conferences held in the second quarter, up by 56 year-on-year; number of participants rose by 25.5% to 21,215. Meetings and conferences with 200 participants or more increased by 3 year-on-year to 23, and number of participants (56.2% of total) rose by 14.5%. Floor area used for the meetings and conferences totalled 86,144 m2, and the average duration of events was 2.2 days. Concurrently, 16 exhibitions were held, down by 2 year-on-year, and all of them were organized by non-government organizations. Number of attendees decreased by 23.3% year-on-year to 383,767. Exhibitions with 20,000 attendees or more declined by 4 year-on-year to 8, and total number of attendees (320,836) dropped by 27.6%. Floor area used for the exhibitions totalled 67,023 m2, and the average duration of exhibitions was 3.2 days. In accordance with information collected from organizers of 15 exhibitions in the second quarter, 2 exhibitions were held for the first time in Macao. The interviewed organizers had a total of 150 full-time staff engaged in the organization of these exhibitions. Receipts of the 15 exhibitions amounted to MOP 63.96 million, coming primarily from rental of exhibition booths (67.2%) and financial support from government or other organizations (32.1%). Expenditure of the exhibitions amounted to MOP 47.06 million, which was mainly spent on publicity & public relations (26.9%), production, construction & decoration services (20.6%) and accommodation, food & beverages (18.6%). A total of 791 exhibitors attended the exhibitions, and most of them came from Macao (36.8%) and Hong Kong (26.5%); meanwhile, there were 30,457 professional visitors, coming mainly from Macao (56.3%) and Hong Kong (18.1%). Information from 374 interviewed exhibitors indicated that sales of products took up a predominant share (96.5%) of the Receipts, while rental paid for exhibition booth and booth decoration accounted for 61.3% and 21.8% respectively of the Expenditure. Regarding interviewed exhibitors’ comments about the MICE venue and services, 74.9% and 73.3% were satisfied with the language skills and attitude & efficiency of the venue staff, down by 1.4 and 1.0 percentage points respectively quarter-to-quarter; on the other hand, 17.1% considered that the promotion of the exhibition should be improved, down by 2.0 percentage points. As regards planning and organization of the exhibition, 10.2% considered that the arrangements of the exhibition required improvements, up by 3.9 percentage points quarter-to-quarter. In the first half year of 2015, a total of 424 MICE events were held, up by 45 year-on-year; total number of participants and attendees decreased by 19.6% to 654,162. There were 398 meetings and conferences, up by 50 year-on-year, but number of participants (40,367) decreased by 17.4%. Meetings and conferences with 200 participants or more (44) dropped by 4 year-on-year. Moreover, there were 26 exhibitions, down by 5 year-on-year, and number of attendees decreased by 19.7% to 613,795. Exhibitions with 20,000 attendees or more dropped by 4 year-on-year to 12. Information was collected from organizers of 25 exhibitions in the first half year. Receipts of the exhibitions amounted to MOP 78.11 million, with 64.9% coming from rental of exhibition booths and 34.5% from financial support from government or other organizations. Expenditure of the exhibitions amounted to MOP 86.64 million, which was mainly spent on publicity & public relations (25.9%), production, construction & decoration services (21.0%) and accommodation, food & beverages (17.8%). A total of 1,749 exhibitors and 35,597 professional visitors were attracted to these exhibitions. Furthermore, 24 exhibitions were organized by non-government organizations, with Receipts (MOP 77.04 million) and Expenditure (MOP 60.06 million) accounting for 98.6% and 69.3% of the respective total; besides, exhibitors and professional visitors of these exhibitions constituted 73.6% and 88.3% of the total respectively.
