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While Macau’s casino market hit its sixth straight month of year-on-year revenue declines in November, new data released by the government show a vibrant meetings and conventions market that has been gathering momentum over the course of 2014.
MICE revenues (meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions) almost doubled through the first nine months of the year, according to results compiled by the government’s Statistics and Census service.
The city hosted 240 such events in the third quarter that drew more than 724,000 participants and attendees, a 16% increase over last year’s third quarter.
For the year through September, 743 events were held, generating more than MOP125 million (US$15.6 million) in receipts, a 94% increase over the same period in 2013.
The number of participants increased by 48% year on year to more than 1.5 million.
Non-gambling spend in general has been on the upswing as well.
Visitors to Macau spent MOP15.5 billion ($1.9 billion) in the third quarter, excluding gambling, an increase of 4.6% over the same period in 2013, official data show. Per capita spend fell by 1.4% year on year to MOP1,878 ($235), but the number of visitors grew by 6.1% to 8.2 million. Mainland Chinese were the biggest spenders over the period at MOP2,220 per head, with shopping accounting for 57% of their total expenditure. Overall, shopping accounted for 49% of spend market-wide, followed by accommodation at 26%.
Total visitor arrivals to the city through the first nine months are up 7.4% to 23.5 million.
