MICE leaders positive about business in H2 2021 

The meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry is sanguine about the prospect of the MICE sector in Macau in the second half of 2021.
Some leaders of the city’s MICE industry expressed their optimism at an explanatory seminar yesterday on March 31. The event delineated the outlook for Macau’s MICE sector and key policies laid down in the Two Sessions.
The event was jointly hosted by the Association of Advertising Agents of Macau, the Macao Convention & Exhibition Association and the Macau Fair & Trade Association.
Earlier, on March 30, the Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong vowed in a Legislative Assembly (AL) meeting that the government would strive to launch the Exhibition Curation and Arrangement training program in the second or third quarter of 2021.
The training scheme, Lei explained, is to help bolster the infrastructure of the local MICE sector and help it to be better prepared for the future tourism revival after the Covod-19 pandemic subsides.
Edmund Wong I Mun, Chairman of the Association of Advertising Agents of Macau, told the media after the event that he is supportive of the upskilling program.
But he suggested that the government doubles down on diversifying tourism offerings in Macau by launching more thematic travel packages, such as wedding travel, to help prop up the industry.
Meanwhile, Song Xiaodong, President of the Macao Convention & Exhibition Association, called on the MICE organizers to forge a closer partnership with mainland China and overseas enterprises to help foster the industry.
In 2020, Macau’s MICE sector came to a standstill in light of the pandemic, with the number of MICE events held in Macau falling by around 76% year-on-year to only 362, whilst the number of participants and attendees also showed a year-on-year drop of 54.6% to 914,000, according to the official data.
Despite the sharp fall, the fact that Macau managed to host some international MICE events was no small feat, Lei added. The government will prioritize hiring local talent to engage in the MICE industry, he stressed.