Hong Kong’s exhibition industry reaffirms role as global sourcing platform

Survey showed 648,000 visitors from outside of Hong Kong attended trade exhibitions, representing an increase of over 13% from 2009.

During its Annual General Meeting on 17 June, the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Industry Association (HKECIA) announced positive results of its 2010 Exhibition Survey. The number of trade exhibitions, visitors, exhibiting companies and space taken all showed an increase, some with double digit percentage.

In 2010, over 648,000 visitors from outside of Hong Kong attended trade exhibitions, representing an increase of over 13% from 2009. This significant leap was fuelled by a strong comeback of international visitors by 18% to 214,000, surpassing the pre-financial crisis level. Visitors from the region increased by 13%, to 202,000. Mainland Chinese, numbering 232,000, represented an almost 10% increment from the previous year. At the same time, the number of local visitors to trade exhibitions jumped by 14% to over 1.2 million, according to an HKECIA report.

While the total number of exhibiting companies only showed a modest increment of 2% to 56,800, the increment of total space occupied, however, was a remarkable 10% to 872,000 sqm, signifying that many companies were taking larger booth areas than before. This was a clear demonstration of the confidence of exhibiting companies from worldwide to business potential presented by Hong Kong trade shows.

With Hong Kong’s close business ties with Mainland China, it is worth noting that the number of visitors from across the border, compared with those from international and regional, took up the largest proportion amongst visitors from outside of Hong Kong.

Exhibiting companies from the Mainland, on the other hand, continued to increase to 20,000, a 5% increment from 2009, which is a higher than average percentage.

“We are very excited to report such encouraging growth figures in the HKECIA 2010 Exhibition Survey. While we are happy to see Mainland companies investing heavily in our shows, it is clear that Hong Kong remains an important global sourcing hub. Our international business partners have returned after a short lived dent, demonstrating time proven effectiveness of Hong Kong trade exhibitions as their business platform.

With such positive indicators, the Association has full confidence that trade exhibitions in Hong Kong will continue to flourish and this reaffirms the city’s leading role in the industry,” commented HKECIA Chairman Mr Daniel Cheung.