As UFI delegates are set to descend on Shanghai for its 83rd Global Congress, EW is reminded of previous UFI events where China asserted its goal to dominate the world of exhibitions.
The rhetoric was backed up by research during ibtm china 2016 which revealed the high demand from hosted buyers looking to place business within the region. Indeed, an ibtm spokesperson said China has witnessed a 17.4 per cent growth in outbound MICE travel over the last five years, reaching 17m trips.
In terms of venue space, China already has the world’s busiest exhibition centre, the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), and since last year Shanghai is also home to NECC, one of the world’s largest MICE facilities.
UBM Asia told EW that it is very feasible for China to become the world’s largest exhibition market within 10, or maximum 15 years. “By then China will be the world’s largest economy; this combined with the large population and land space makes further dynamic growth inevitable,” says Wolfram Diener, senior vice president, UBM Asia.
Similar to the US market, Diener predicts that China we will see many more events pre-dominantly catering to the domestic market, but also international ones catering to different sub-regions such as Central-Eastern, Southern and Northern China.
He adds: “The infrastructure, accessibility and macro-economic factors make Shanghai an outstanding MICE destination. In terms of contracted space it is already world-leading, and I don’t see that any other destination will come close in the foreseeable future.“
Media 10 director Mike Dynan concurs, adding that China has more construction work than anywhere else in the world. “It is the biggest manufacturer in the world and has more infrastructure than most countries. China has the fastest growing middle class in the world and is the biggest consumer of luxury goods. Now with government plans to make China the biggest MICE country in the world; it has the willingness behind it, and the willingness of the Chinese government is a very powerful thing. They very rarely fail.”
Media 10 has been going out to China for nine years. In 2007 Lee Newton, CEO of Media 10, and Dynan accompanied Damion Angus of Montgomery Exhibitions to examine its exhibition market. During that first 10 day trip the trio walked around the streets of Shanghai trying to get under the skin of the city.
Dynan says: “We spent our time seeing what was going on and trying to find out what would and would not work with our portfolio at Media 10 and what we could possibly bring to China. After this trip we made our first partnership and we attempted to launch a show into the market. It was a consumer event which would have been unlike anything China had experienced; unfortunately six months into the project it was quite clear that it was not going to work with the partners we had. However, those six months made us think about what might be possible in Shanghai, and realise the potential for exhibitions and the gaps in the market.”
Although the time wasn’t right, the trio made several more trips over the next five years to Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and other major cities. In 2012, they decided that the time was right to launch design events into Shanghai. “We were introduced to a Chinese partner and we decided to launch the Design Shanghai event. The first year was a huge learning curve, but there were fantastic positives from the show, as we saw there was a gap in the market opening up, but there were also massive negatives.”
Dynan cites huge investment costs, serious on site issues, massive customs problems, licensing issues, problems with safety, security, ticketing and finally a massive breakdown with the then local partner that almost cancelled the project.
There’s a happy ending, however. After the third year of the show Design Shanghai is already the fourth most attended design event in the world and one of Media 10’s leading projects. “We can see the results of our efforts as the show is growing 70 per cent year-on-year and we can’t see that stopping at any time soon,” Dynan adds.
Major investments in China are hard to ignore, and the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort in June 2016 is a sign of the times. The themed resort in Pudong, Shanghai is the first Disney park resort in mainland China and the second in Greater China, after the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
The resort, which will eventually cover 963-acres, features Shanghai Disneyland Park, an entertainment district, two themed hotels, recreational facilities and a lake.
It is this country wide ambition that has attracted global MICE attention. Karen Chupka, SVP, CES and corporate business strategy, Consumer Technology Association (CTA) says that before launching the inaugural CES Asia in 2015, CTA spent more than five years analysing the greater Asian market and saw there was need for an innovative exhibition and conference in mainland China, particularly in the technology space.
“The success of our first show and growth of the second event in Shanghai made it clear for us that there is tremendous potential in the Asian market, China specifically, where the demand for innovative technologies and solutions is growing. China’s latest five-year plan for 2016-2020 will invest heavily in science and technology, which is conducive to much of the MICE industry.
“China is on the right track with aiming to transform itself into a hub for innovation, with new strategic industries being singled out for global leadership. China has long established itself as a powerhouse in Asia with a large, eager consumer population and is quickly becoming a center for innovation.”
Elsewhere, the Chinese market has been vital to new venue openings globally. ICC Sydney’s Geoff Donaghy has seen an influx of Chinese MICE traveller demand. “It has been well documented that the Chinese government is continuing to relax its control over the formation and management of trade associations, with Beijing announcing a trial programme to grant autonomy to 148 selected associations last year. Numbers have also swelled in recent years, there were approximately 307,000 associations registered in the country at the end of 2014.”
Malaysia is also rapidly gaining traction as Asia’s prime global hub for business events and corporate incentives especially in the Chinese market. To date, more than 20 of MyCEB’s industry partners, comprising MICE relevant industries as well as state bureaus, have confirmed their participation in this year’s roadshow to China.
UBM Asia’s Diener says opportunities for foreign exhibition investment are, in principle, relatively open. “Foreign-invested exhibition companies are allowed since more than ten years ago, a new policy requires government entities to engage less in direct management of exhibitions whereas support or at least goodwill by government or semi-government entities can still be crucial for the sustainable success of an exhibition.”
So domestically and internationally, China is established as a key exhibition player and all signs point to this trend continuing. EW
