Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that a total of 197 MICE events were held in Macao in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 34 year-on-year. Meanwhile, number of participants & attendees dropped by 15.4% year-on-year to 608,000 as number of large exhibitions decreased.

There were 166 meetings & conferences held in the fourth quarter, up by 26 year-on-year; number of participants rose by 35.7% to 18,000. The average duration of the meetings & conferences remained at 1.0 day, while the total floor area used surged by 49.9% to 118,000 m². Number of exhibitions went up by 8 year-on-year to 28; yet, number of attendees fell by 16.3% to 590,000 owing to a decrease in the number of exhibitions with 20,000 attendees or more. The average duration of the exhibitions held steady at 3.2 days, while the total floor area used expanded by 13.5% to 250,000 m². Besides, there were 3 incentives, with 479 participants.

Receipts and expenditure of the exhibition organisers totalled MOP51.56 million and MOP146 million respectively in the fourth quarter, representing respective growth of 4.1% and 20.2% year-on-year. Receipts of the 22 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations decreased by 5.8% year-on-year to MOP42.75 million, of which financial support from government/organisations and rental receipts of exhibition booths took up 68.0% and 31.8% respectively. Meanwhile, expenditure increased by 32.4% to MOP63.70 million, which was mainly for production, installation & decoration (39.9% of total).

The exhibitions in the fourth quarter attracted 3,098 exhibitors and 28,000 professional visitors. In accordance with the information collected from 952 interviewed exhibitors, their main source of receipts was sales of goods (96.8% of total), whereas their expenditure was primarily incurred on rental paid for exhibition booths (48.7% of total) and booth installation & decoration (30.0%).

For the whole year of 2022, a total of 460 MICE events were held, an increase of 11 year-on-year; total number of participants & attendees rose by 1.4% to 1,421,000. Meetings & conferences (385) decreased by 1, and number of participants (42,000) dipped by 1.1%. Exhibitions (64) increased by 9 year-on-year, and number of attendees (1,376,000) went up by 1.5%. Number of incentives (11) grew by 3, whereas that of participants (2,193) dropped by 11.1%.

Receipts and expenditure of the exhibition organisers totalled MOP78.72 million and MOP199 million respectively in 2022, up by 2.7% and 15.9% year-on-year. Receipts of the 57 exhibitions organised by non-government organisations went down by 3.9% year-on-year to MOP68.67 million, while their expenditure grew by 19.2% to MOP90.31 million. These exhibitions recorded a loss of MOP21.64 million after deducting expenditure from receipts; moreover, the loss amounted to MOP55.40 million when excluding financial support from government/organisations.

Regarding comments from the interviewed exhibitors, the proportions of exhibitors who complimented on the services (88.7%) and arrangements (88.1%) of the local companies were relatively high in 2022, while the share of those who were satisfied with the promotion of the organisers (75.0%) remained relatively low.