A total of 1,381 MICE events (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) were held in Macau during 2017, up 8.2% year-on-year, information by the Macau SAR Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) reveals.
The number of participants in MICE events also increased 10.4% to 1.9 million in 2017 compared to the previous year.
While the number of meetings and conferences increased 7.5% in 2017 to 1,285, the number of exhibitions decreased by four to 51. Participants in meetings and conferences were up 39.3% to 245,000 in the period, while the number of attendees to exhibitions increased 7.2% to 1.6 million.
DSEC also said that the average duration of meetings and conferences was 1.6 days, up by 0.1 days year-on-year, with total floor area used up by 53.3% to 1,198,000 square meters. Total floor area used in exhibitions decreased 2.7% to 302,000 square meters.
The number of incentives increased by 19 year-on-year to 45, with the number of participants expanding by 5.4% to 48,000.
Quarterly muscle
During the fourth quarter of 2017 there were a total of 378 MICE events, including 354 meetings and conferences, 18 exhibitions and six incentives. The total number of participants and attendees was 694,000.
While the number of meetings and conferences during the period increased by only two year-on-year, the number of participants in the segment rose 23.8% to 86,000. The overall average duration of meetings and conferences was 1.6 days with total floor area used down 20.6% to 313,000 square meters.
There were two more exhibitions year-on-year in Q417, with 45.8% more attendees (591,000). The average duration of the exhibitions was 3.3 days, up by 0.1 days year-on-year, whereas the total floor area used dropped by 2.0% to 152,000 square meters. The number of incentives went up by three year-on-year to six and the number of participants grew by 14.1% to 16,000. The average duration of the incentives increased by 0.3 days year-on-year to 2.6 days, while total floor area used dropped by 21.0% to 136,000 square meters.
Show data
Exhibitions in 2017 attracted 5,533 exhibitors, with 28.6% (1,582) of them coming from mainland China and 35.9% (1,989) from Macau. There were 99,000 professional visitors, 53.3% of those coming from Macau (53,000).
Information collected from 1,230 interviewed exhibitors in 2017 showed 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.