MICE receipts tumble 54%

With a decline of over 70% in MICE events amid the pandemic, receipts of conference and exhibition organising services shrank 53.7% year-on-year to MOP288 million, according to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
Receipts from the provision of conference and exhibition services tumbled by 60.2% and the corresponding proportion in total receipts fell from 90.8% in 2019 to 78% in 2020.
Meanwhile, the share of advertising services in total receipts expanded by 8.8 percentage points year-on-year to 15.5%.
As a number of large events were suspended or cancelled during the year, and there was a decrease in advertising spending across industries, receipts of the advertising industry plunged 41.7% year-on-year to MOP523 million. The industry posted a deficit of MOP10.54 million in 2020, and Gross Value Added fell by 48.7% year-on-year to MOP183 million.
The number of establishments in advertising and conference and exhibition organizing services decreased by 108, while the number of persons engaged dropped by 789. Receipts from the two industries fell by 46.6% and 40.2% respectively.
DSEC indicated that a total of 582 establishments were engaged in cleaning, property management and security services in 2020, representing an increase of 23 establishments year-on-year, with the total number of persons engaged rising by 325.
Meanwhile, the demand for security services was struck by the slowdown in economic activity amid the pandemic. Receipts of security services dropped by 7.8% year-on-year to MOP2.27 billion, and expenditure decreased by 3.0% to MOP2.05 billion.
Also, receipts of property management services grew by 2.5%  year-on-year to MOP2.01 billion, of which 83.7% were generated from building management services. Expenditure went up by 2.5% year-on-year to MOP 1.82 billion, with Compensation of Employees and Operating Expenses accounting for 53.8% and 33.1% of the total respectively. Staff Reporter