Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 318 MICE events were held in the second quarter of 2016, consisting of 292 meetings & conferences, 18 exhibitions and 8 incentive events. Total number of participants and attendees was 451,000. Number of meetings & conferences held in the second quarter decreased by 7 year-on-year; number of participants rose by 22.1% to 36,000 due to an increase in number of meetings & conferences having 200 participants or more. The average duration of the meetings & conferences was 1.4 days. Meanwhile, meetings & conferences of 4 hours or more decreased by 29 year-on-year to 184 while number of participants increased by 14.5% to 26,000. The average duration of these meetings & conferences was 1.9 days. There were 18 exhibitions held in the second quarter, up by 2 year-on-year. Among them, 17 exhibitions were organized by non-government organizations, and 5 exhibitions were held for the first time in Macao. The 18 exhibitions attracted a total of 392,000 attendees, up by 2.1% year-on-year. The average duration of the exhibitions was 3.4 days and total floor area used was 85,000 m2, up by 0.2 day and 27.4% respectively year-on-year. Furthermore, the 8 incentive events drew 23,000 participants; the average duration of the events was 2.0 days and total floor area used was 135,000 m2. In accordance with information collected from the organizers of 17 exhibitions in the second quarter, receipts of these exhibitions amounted to MOP 65.32 million, with rental of exhibition booths accounting for 84.2%. Expenditure of the exhibitions totalled MOP 66.16 million, which was mainly incurred on production, construction & decoration (27.8%) and publicity & public relations (22.9%). Information from the non-government organizers of 16 exhibitions indicated that receipts of these exhibitions amounted to MOP 63.90 million, of which 83.9% came from rental of exhibition booths and merely 9.5% (MOP 6.05 million) were from financial support from government or other organizations. Expenditure of the exhibitions totalled MOP 40.77 million, mainly incurred on production, construction & decoration (32.7%) and publicity & public relations (23.1%). The 17 exhibitions attracted 1,455 exhibitors, of which 33.7% came from Macao and 27.0% from Mainland China; professional visitors totalled 34,000, with those from Macao predominating (53.5%). Exhibitors and professional visitors attending exhibitions organized by non-government organizations constituted 67.8% and 90.0% of the respective total. Information from 440 interviewed exhibitors in the second quarter indicated that 95.8% of their receipts came from sales of products, while rental paid for exhibition booth accounted for 59.6% of their expenditure. Regarding comments about the MICE venue and services, over 80.0% of the interviewed exhibitors were satisfied with the professionalism, language skills, work efficiency & attitude of the venue staff, as well as the services and arrangements rendered by local companies, notably higher than the respective percentages in the first quarter of 2016. Moreover, 51.3% of the exhibitors were satisfied with the promotion of the exhibition, up by 15.5 percentage points quarter-to-quarter, while a relatively high proportion of the exhibitors (24.5%) considered that improvement was needed, down by 3.8 percentage points. As regards the venue, 77.5% of the exhibitors were satisfied with the ease of access, up by 16.3 percentage points, while 6.4% considered that improvement was needed, down by 5.2 percentage points. In the first half year of 2016, a total of 586 meetings & conferences were held, up by 10 year-on-year; total number of participants increased by 13.8% to 61,000. Meetings & conferences of 4 hours or more totalled 365, down by 44, and number of participants decreased by 4.7% to 40,000. Meanwhile, exhibitions totalled 22, down by 4 year-on-year, with number of attendees falling by 18.3% to 501,000; there were 21 exhibitions organized by non-government organizations and number of attendees (496,000) made up 98.8% of the total. Number of incentive events totalled 20, drawing 25,000 participants. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of the MICE industry in Macao, apart from the adoption of international standards, the MICE Statistics also incorporates meetings & conferences of less than 4 hours, as well as business incentive events which include those supported by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), starting from the second quarter of 2016 and the duration of events of less than 4 hours is counted as 0.5 day. Relevant statistics in the Statistics Database of the DSEC website have been updated accordingly.
