The Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) will establish a “MICE Bidding and Support Team” alongside local MICE-related companies and Macau’s six concessionaires in an effort to bring more convention and exhibition business to the SAR.
In a statement, IPIM said, “Recruiting and tendering for more international or regional thematic MICE events to be held in Macau will allow the MICE industry to develop in the direction of improving quality and increasing quantity.”
The initiative comes with Macau’s MICE industry in the midst of recovery, having welcomed 10,000 visitors to Macau for MICE events in July including 3,000 international visitors – primarily from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India. In the first six months of 2023 combined, more than 20,000 MICE visitors spent money in various communities in Macau, IPIM said.
Growing Macau’s MICE industry is one of the 11 non-gaming investment projects outlined by the government under the new concession contracts signed by concessionaires in December.
The government has already set up a referral mechanism on another of those projects, culture and sports, under which it will evaluate and pass onto concessionaires any ideas that could grow Macau’s cultural and sports industries.
Macau currently has 240,000 square meters of convention and exhibition space, with 208 MICE events held in 1Q23 attracting nearly 200,000 attendees.
The Macao Government Tourism Office revealed last week that there were a total of 11.6 million visitor arrivals to Macau in 1H23, with a daily average of more than 64,000 – recovering to 59.6% of the 2019 annual daily average.
International visitors in the first half of the year totaled nearly 475,000, recovering to 31.2% of 2019. In addition, average hotel occupancy rate from January to June was 80.1% compared with 90.8% recorded in 1H19.
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