As Macau’s target is to hold 1,500 MICE events this year, Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) President Vincent U U Sang noted yesterday that the MICE industry is about to enter its annual peak season, with large-scale conventions and exhibitions to be held one after another in the coming months, including the annual Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF) as well as Macao Franchise Expo, and U was quick to add that IPIM hopes to develop, expand and strengthen the local MICE industry “in a sustainable direction”, further enhancing its competitiveness from quantity to quality.
U also told reporters he was confident that the government’s target of 1,500 MICE events could be achieved this year: “We are not chasing quantity for the sake of quantity, there is first a certain quantity on a certain level when the quantity of our MICE industry reaches a certain level, and then we are looking for quantitative changes to qualitative changes, hoping to achieve a more sustainable development of Macau’s MICE industry”.
Macau has been developing its MICE industry in the form of the “fair within a fair” concept in recent years. U pointed out that, as could be seen from the development of the MICE industry in other regions, there was a relatively clear and definite distinction between “business to business (B2B)” and “business to consumer (B2C)”, but in Macau “we hope to significantly enhance the professional elements of the B2B side” while accumulating and collecting successful examples.
According to an IPIM statement early this month, 1,139 MICE events were held in Macau last year, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.4 times. With more than 1.6 million attendees and visitors, the MICE industry boosted non-gaming revenue by about 6.2 billion patacas, representing a three-fold increase compared to 2022. A total of 307 MICE events were held in the first quarter of this year, representing a year-on-year growth of 31.2 percent, the statement underlined.
U made the remarks while speaking to the media about this year’s Guangdong & Macau Branded Products Fair at The Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo.
The four-day Guangdong-Macau fair came to an end yesterday, during which, according to U, nearly 400 business matching sessions were arranged, resulting in 65 contract signings and over 100,000 attendees. “All in all, the number of attendees, the sales of goods and the atmosphere at the venue were all better than expected,” U said.
MICE continues to be ‘hot trend’
U, who talked to reporters yesterday morning at the event venue, summed up this year’s fair by highlighting its rise in attendance numbers, the increase in its number of features, and the MICE sector’s unabated “hot trend”: “The rising popularity of the fair was shown in the significant increase in B2B corporate arrangements, with hotel amenities, solutions, and smart equipment among the highlights of the fair. Exhibitors also told us that the fair was well attended, with visitors from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) taking the initiative to talk to them. There was also feedback from many local brands that their sales were better than expected, with some mainland businesspeople especially travelling to the event to promote their products”. He also said that following the 120,000 visitors to another large-scale event earlier this month – Sands Shopping Carnival, the Guangdong & Macau Branded Products Fair, which kicked off on Thursday, also reached 100,000 attendees, showing the continuation of the local MICE industry’s “hot trend”.
Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) President Vincent U U Sang speaks to the media yesterday, the last day of the Guangdong & Macau Branded Products Fair, at The Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo. – Photo: Yuki Lei
