MACAU, August 25 - Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 91 MICE events were held in Macao in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 56 year-on-year; the number of participants & attendees dropped by 4.0% to 306,000.

There were 81 meetings & conferences held in the second quarter, down by 47 year-on-year; number of participants decreased by 31.2% to 11,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences shortened by 0.2 day year-on-year to 0.8 day, while the total floor area used declined by 39.7% to 49,000 m². Number of exhibitions went down by 5 year-on-year to 10, all of which were organised by non-government organisations; number of attendees dropped by 2.1% to 294,000. The average duration of the exhibitions extended by 0.3 day year-on-year to 3.6 days, while the total floor area used diminished by 20.9% to 26,000 m².

Receipts of the exhibition organisers dropped by 29.4% year-on-year to MOP6.98 million, of which 80.5% were generated from rental of exhibition booths and 19.0% were financial support from government/organisations. Expenditure of these exhibitions fell by 33.8% to MOP6.47 million, with the majority being spent on production, installation & decoration (41.1% of total), followed by publicity & public relations (25.6%) and rental paid for the venue (16.3%). After excluding financial support from government/organisations, these exhibitions recorded a loss of MOP0.81 million in the second quarter.

Number of exhibitors decreased by 37.4% year-on-year to 487, and 91.8% of them were locals. In accordance with the information collected from 325 interviewed exhibitors, 98.0% of their receipts were generated from sales of goods, whereas their expenditure was mainly incurred on rental paid for exhibition booths (62.6% of total) and booth installation & decoration (23.1%). Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, the proportion of exhibitors who complimented on the promotion of exhibitions expanded by 11.8 percentage points quarter-to-quarter to 80.6%, while the share of exhibitors who were satisfied with the ease of access of the venue (81.2%) reduced by 2.2 percentage points.

In the first half of 2022, a total of 188 MICE events were held, a drop of 27 year-on-year; total number of participants & attendees rose by 3.1% to 471,000. Meetings & conferences went down by 32 to 157, with the number of participants decreasing by 24.0% to 17,000. Number of exhibitions went up by 2 year-on-year to 24, and number of attendees increased by 4.6% to 452,000. All the exhibitions in the first half year were organised by non-government organisations; their receipts and expenditure grew by 6.7% and 5.0% year-on-year to MOP17.17 million and MOP15.27 million respectively. After excluding financial support from government/organisations, these exhibitions recorded a loss of MOP0.75 million in the first half year, which has narrowed as compared to the first half of 2021 (–MOP0.99 million).