MACAU, February 25 - Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 163 MICE events were held in Macao in the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 92 quarter-to-quarter; number of participants & attendees soared by 218.1% to 719,000. In comparison with the same quarter last year, MICE events rose by 13 and the number of participants & attendees swelled by 39.5%.

There were 140 meetings & conferences held in the fourth quarter, up by 9 year-on-year; number of participants decreased by 18.8% to 13,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences extended by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.0 day, while the total floor area used dropped by 10.6% to 79,000 m². Number of exhibitions in the fourth quarter grew by 1 year-on-year to 20, and the number of attendees surged by 41.3% to 705,000. Exhibitions organised by non-government organisations (14) went up by 1 and number of attendees (461,000) increased by 21.4%. The average duration of the exhibitions shortened by 0.2 day year-on-year to 3.2 days, while the total floor area used expanded by 20.1% to 220,000 m². Furthermore, 3 incentives were held in the fourth quarter, with 565 participants. The average duration of these incentives was 2.3 days and the total floor area used reached 3,823 m².

In the fourth quarter, receipts and expenditure of the exhibition organisers amounted to MOP49.85 million and MOP121 million respectively. Receipts of the 14 exhibitions held by non-government organisations totalled MOP45.71 million, of which 52.9% were generated from rental of exhibition booths and 47.1% were financial support from government/organisations. Expenditure of these exhibitions added up to MOP48.11 million, with installation of booths, decoration & audio-visual performance, etc. and publicity & public relations accounting for 25.1% and 16.6% of the total respectively. These exhibitions recorded a difference of -MOP23.91 million between receipts and expenditure after the deduction of financial support from government/organisations.

There were 2,515 exhibitors participating in the exhibitions in the fourth quarter, with 48.3% of them being locals and 42.8% coming from mainland China. Professional visitors totalled 32,000, of whom 54.7% were locals and 44.4% came from mainland China. In accordance with the information collected from 934 interviewed exhibitors, 98.4% of their receipts were generated from sales of goods, whereas their expenditure was mainly incurred on booth installation & decoration (44.2% of total) and rental paid for exhibition booths (43.7%).

For the whole year of 2021, a total of 449 MICE events were held, an increase of 68 year-on-year; total number of participants & attendees grew by 53.2% to 1,401,000. Meetings & conferences (386), exhibitions (55) and incentives (8) went up by 41, 21 and 6 year-on-year respectively, with the respective number of participants (43,000), attendees (1,356,000) and participants（2,468）rising by 9.0%, 55.0% and 308.6%.

Receipts and expenditure of the exhibition organisers totalled MOP76.97 million and MOP172 million respectively in 2021. Receipts of the 47 exhibitions held by non-government organisations amounted to MOP71.70 million, of which 63.4% were generated from rental of exhibition booths and 36.5% were financial support from government/organisations. Expenditure of these exhibitions added up to MOP75.79 million, which was mainly incurred on installation of booths, decoration & audio-visual performance, etc. (31.3% of total) and publicity & public relations (19.2%). These exhibitions registered a difference of -MOP30.24 million between receipts and expenditure after the deduction of financial support from government/organisations, which indicated a slight improvement compared to 2020 (-MOP33.15 million).

Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, their satisfaction towards various facilities and services registered year-on-year increase in 2021. Among the interviewed exhibitors who had used services rendered by local companies, the proportions of those who were satisfied with the arrangements (91.1%) and services (91.1%) of the companies rose by 4.0 percentage points and 3.8 percentage points year-on-year respectively.