Last year, the industry of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) saw increases on all fronts, including number of events, participants and revenue.

According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), for the whole year of 2014 a total of 1,055 MICE events were held, comprising 968 meetings and conferences and 87 exhibitions, up by 4 and 21 per cent, respectively, year-on-year. November was the peak month for MICE events, with 114 meetings and conferences and 14 exhibitions held.

The total number of participants and attendees for the whole year reached 2.61 million, up 28.6 per cent year-on-year. There were 130 meetings and conferences involving 200 participants or more; meanwhile, 19 exhibitions attracted 40,000 attendees or more, representing an increase of 6 exhibitions year-on-year.

In 2014, receipts of the exhibition organizers totalled MOP278 million, up by 52.7 per cent year-on-year, coming mainly from financial support from government or other organizations (MOP165 million) and rental of exhibition booths (MOP109 million). Expenditure increased by 15 per cent to MOP344 million, of which expenses on production, construction and decoration services (MOP87.02 million), publicity and public relations (MOP68.82 million) and accommodation, food and beverages (MOP52.39 million) shared 25.3 per cent, 20.0 per cent and 15.2 per cent, respectively, of the total. In accordance with the information from 858 interviewed exhibitors, 84.3 per cent of receipts came from the sale of products, while 60.9 per cent of the expenditure was incurred on rental of exhibition booth.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, according to DSEC, some 312 MICE events were held. Although this represented a decline of 34 per cent year-on-year, the total number of participants and attendees increased by 7.7 per cent to 1.06 million, occupying 335,780 square metres for an average event duration of 1.9 days.