Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 378 MICE events were held in the fourth quarter of 2017, including 354 meetings & conferences, 18 exhibitions and 6 incentives. Total number of participants and attendees was 694,000.
Number of meetings & conferences held in the fourth quarter went up by 2 year-on-year and number of participants rose by 23.8% to 86,000, attributable to an increase of 34.0% in participants of meetings & conferences with 200 participants or more (72,000). Meetings & conferences of 4 hours or more totalled 244, down by 8 year-on-year, while number of participants expanded by 40.1% to 77,000. The overall average duration of the meetings & conferences was 1.6 days, the same as in the fourth quarter of 2016; total floor area used decreased by 20.6% to 313,000 m2.
Number of exhibitions held in the fourth quarter increased by 2 year-on-year to 18, and number of attendees surged by 45.8% to 591,000. Among the exhibitions, 16 were organised by non-government organisations, attracting 459,000 attendees (+31.0%); number of attendees of the 2 exhibitions organised by the Government soared by 140.7% to 132,000. The average duration of the exhibitions was 3.3 days, up by 0.1 day year-on-year, whereas the total floor area used dropped by 2.0% to 152,000 m2. Number of incentives went up by 3 year-on-year to 6, and number of participants grew by 14.1% to 16,000. The average duration of the incentives increased by 0.3 day year-on-year to 2.6 days, while total floor area used dropped by 21.0% to 136,000 m2.
According to the information provided by the exhibition organisers in the fourth quarter, receipts and expenditure of the 18 exhibitions amounted to MOP 76.73 million and MOP 114 million respectively. The receipts were primarily generated from financial support provided by the government and other organisations (75.3% of total) while the expenditure was mainly incurred on production, construction & decoration (27.1% of total). Receipts of the 16 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations totalled MOP 74.22 million, of which 77.8% came from financial support from government and other organisations, and 20.6% from rental receipts of exhibition booths. Expenditure of these 16 exhibitions amounted to MOP 86.10 million, with production, construction & decoration and publicity & public relations taking up 25.9% and 14.3% respectively. The exhibitions in the fourth quarter attracted 2,250 exhibitors, with those coming from Mainland China and Macao together accounting for 72.8%. Meanwhile, professional visitors totalled 50,000, and 53.9% of them were from Macao. Among the exhibitions organised by non-government organisations, the majority of exhibitors (1,342) and professional visitors (40,000) were from Macao, which accounted for 43.2% and 56.4% of the respective total.
Information from 417 interviewed exhibitors in the fourth quarter indicated that 88.7% of their receipts were generated from sales of products, while rental paid for exhibition booths and booth decoration & construction accounted for 40.6% and 40.4% of their expenditure respectively. Regarding comments from the exhibitors, their satisfaction towards most of the facilities and services recorded quarter-to-quarter decline. The proportions of interviewed exhibitors who complimented the language skills (78.7%), professionalism (78.2%) and work efficiency & attitude (77.9%) of venue staff were relatively high, whereas the share of those who were satisfied with the promotion of the exhibition (55.2%) recorded the lowest rating among all aspects. On the other hand, the proportion of interviewed exhibitors who were satisfied with venue facilities (71.2%) went up by 1.6 percentage points.
For the whole year of 2017, a total of 1,381 MICE events were held, up by 105 year-on-year, and total number of participants and attendees increased by 10.4% to 1,901,000. Number of meetings & conferences was 1,285 (+90), and number of participants rose by 39.3% to 245,000, with those attending meetings & conferences of 200 participants or more (191,000) surging by 55.2%. In 2017, meetings & conferences of 4 hours or more went up by 81 year-on-year to 869, and number of participants expanded by 56.6% to 206,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences was 1.6 days, up by 0.1 day year-on-year; total floor area used reached 1,198,000 m2, up by 53.3%. Number of exhibitions decreased by 4 year-on-year to 51, while number of attendees rose by 7.2% to 1,608,000; total floor area used dropped by 2.7% to 302,000 m2. Among the exhibitions, 44 were organised by non-government organisations, of which those with 20,000 or more attendees went down by 2 year-on-year to 21, whereas the number of attendees grew by 5.4% to 1,203,000. Meanwhile, number of incentives increased by 19 year-on-year to 45, with number of participants expanding by 5.4% to 48,000.
In accordance with the information collected from the 51 exhibition organisers, their receipts totalled MOP 184 million, with the majority being generated from rental receipts of exhibition booths (51.3% of total). Their expenditure amounted to MOP 229 million, which was mostly spent on production, construction & decoration (27.2% of total) and publicity & public relations (16.1%). In 2017, there were 44 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations; receipts and expenditure of these exhibitions amounted to MOP 177 million and MOP 144 million respectively. After deducting the expenditure and financial support from government and other organisations (MOP 71.85 million) from the receipts, these exhibitions recorded a deficit of MOP 38.62 million, an improvement from the deficit of MOP 48.05 million in 2016.
The exhibitions in the whole year of 2017 attracted 5,533 exhibitors, with 28.6% (1,582) of them coming from Mainland China and 35.9% (1,989) from Macao. There were 99,000 professional visitors and those coming from Macao (53,000) predominated at 53.3%. Among the exhibitions organised by non-government organisations, most of the exhibitors (3,323) and professional visitors (77,000) were from Macao, accounting for 40.5% and 56.8% of the respective total. Information collected from the 1,230 interviewed exhibitors in 2017 indicated that 95.8% of their receipts were generated from sales of products and 50.9% of their expenditure was incurred on rental paid for exhibition booths.