MICE Statistics for the 1st Quarter 2020
Meetings & conferences held in the first quarter decreased by 253 year-on-year, with number of participants (17,000) falling by 80.2%. Meetings & conferences with a duration of 4 hours or more totalled 81, and participants dropped by 81.4% to 14,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences edged down by 0.1 day to 1.4 days, and the total floor area used declined by 71.0% to 79,000 m².
There were 3 exhibitions in the first quarter, a drop of 7 from 10 as recorded in the same quarter last year, and number of attendees decreased by 73.3% to 63,000; all these 3 exhibitions were held in January by non-government organisations. The average duration of the exhibitions shortened by 0.6 day year-on-year to 3.0 days, and the total floor area used reduced by 74.7% to 7,750 m². Meanwhile, there were 2 incentives, a decrease of 3 year-on-year. Number of participants (604) and the total floor area used (2,145 m²) declined by 95.4% and 98.1% respectively. The average duration of these incentives dropped by 1.4 days to 1.5 days.
According to the information on the 3 exhibitions in the first quarter, receipts of these exhibitions fell by 47.6% year-on-year to MOP 4.90 million, of which 85.0% were generated from rental of exhibition booths and the remaining 15.0% were financial support from the government and other organisations. Meanwhile, expenditure of these exhibitions decreased by 91.0% year-on-year to MOP 3.09 million, which was mostly incurred on publicity & public relations (34.0%), installation, decoration & audio-visual performance, etc. (27.4%) and rental paid for the venue (20.1%). After deducting expenditure as well as financial support from the government and other organisations from receipts, these exhibitions recorded net receipts of MOP 1.08 million.
A total of 176 exhibitors participated in the exhibitions in the first quarter, with local exhibitors and those from Hong Kong accounting for 48.3% and 46.0% of the total respectively. In accordance with the information collected from the 119 interviewed exhibitors in the first quarter, the majority of their receipts were generated from sales of products (95.5% of total), whereas their expenditure was mainly incurred on rental paid for exhibition booths (66.9% of total) and booth installation & decoration (21.6%). Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, 83.6% of those who had hired local companies in the first quarter were satisfied with their services and 82.1% complimented on their arrangements, representing increases of 10.1 percentage points and 7.6 percentage points respectively from the fourth quarter of 2019. Among all rated aspects, the proportion of interviewed exhibitors who expressed satisfaction with the promotion of exhibitions was the lowest, at merely 56.8%, down by 6.5 percentage points quarter-to-quarter.