MICE events record drop during first three quarters of this year

A total of 966 MICE events were held in the first three quarters of 2018, a drop of 37 year-on-year, while the total number of participants and attendees increased by 14.8 percent to 1,385,000.

Meetings and conferences decreased by 18 year-on-year to 913, and the number of participants grew by 37 percent to 217,000, according to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

However, in the third quarter of 2018, the total number of MICE events increased by seven year-on-year to 311, which included 283 meetings and conferences, 19 exhibitions and nine incentives.

The number of participants and attendees in the third quarter rose by 19.9 percent to 697,000, DSEC indicated.
Meetings and conferences held in the third quarter grew by four year-on-year, while the number of participants dropped by 20.3 percent to 48,000. The decrease was attributable to a 26.1 percent drop in participants (32,000) attending meetings and conferences of four hours or more with 200 participants
or more. However, the number of these meetings and conferences (46) increased by four.
Exhibitions in the third quarter alone attracted 1,503 exhibitors. Among
them, 50.1 percent were from Macau and 21.3 percent were from mainland China. Professional visitors totaled 25,000 and 71.8 percent of them were local residents.
For exhibitions organized by non-government organizations, 990
exhibitors were registered, with those from Macau and Hong Kong constituting 57.6 percent and 22.9 percent respectively. Professional visitors in this time period totaled 23,000 and 74.6 percent of them were from Macau.

Meanwhile, for the first three quarters, the MICE category of exhibitions increased by 5 year-on-year to 38, and the number of attendees rose by 9.5 percent to 1,114,000. Exhibitions organized by non-government organizations totaled 33, with number of attendees increasing by 11.1 percent to 955,000. Incentives dropped by 24 year-on-year to 15, whereas number of participants soared by 73.6 percent to 55,000.

In accordance with the information collected from the 38 exhibition organizers in the first three quarters, receipts and expenditure of these exhibitions amounted to MOP108 million and MOP125 million respectively.

Receipts of the 33 exhibitions organized by non-government organizations totaled MOP102 million, corresponding to net receipts of MOP52.23
million after deducting expenditure (MOP 49.94 million)