Weekly Newsletter
Hong Kong, 19th January: Hong Kong’s government is loosening the purse strings. The intense protests combined with the Wuhan coronavirus have pushed Hong Kong’s economy into a recession and as a result, the administration of Carrie Lam has decided to operate in a deficit again in 2020-21. This is an unusual financial position for Hong Kong.
Read MoreSydney, 21st January: The Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) has appointed a new Chief Executive to replace Joyce DiMascio who resigned in the final quarter of 2019 in order to pursue new opportunities. Claudia Sagripanti, an events and digital marketing veteran, will take on the role of EEAA’s new Chief Executive beginning on 17th February 2020.
Read MoreHangzhou, 17th January: Alibaba Group’s subsidiary, ANT Financial, is reportedly planning to offer shares in a private placement which will value the company at US$200 billion – the would make ANT Financial one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
Read MorePrivate equity giant, Blackstone, already owns Global Sources, Clarion Events, Pennwell, the NEC Birmingham just to name a few. Now the group owns a few major landmark properties in Las Vegas.
Singapore’s event industry association celebrated its 40 years of history last week. These articles look at some of that history as well as look forward to the future of the MICE industry in the Lion City.
Visitors to Macau were up 10% in 2019 to an incredible 40 million, but the Macau Tourism Office is forecasting a 3% drop in 2020.
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Read MoreHong Kong, 13th January: Hong Kong suffered through a uniquely difficult second half of 2019 with regular political protests and occasional violent clashes between the police and protesters. Although exhibition sector performed well under the circumstances, it would difficult to overstated the negative impact this had on all other categories of events – conferences, corporate meetings, live entertainment, etc. The most recent example is the cancelation of the very popular Chinese New Year fireworks.
Read MoreLausanne, 12th January: Alibaba continues to disrupt a long list of industries and business processes. This week, Alibaba revealed details about its plans to manage ticketing at the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing (despite the lack of… snow and mountains).
Read MoreSingapore, 9th January: Montgomery Asia continues its push into Asia since it was officially established in 2016. Last week, the company announced the launch of new show, Speciality Coffee & Tea Asia (SCTA) which will be held alongside the fourth edition of Speciality & Fine Food Asia (SFFA), a B2B show targeting Southeast Asia’s gourmet & fine food and drink segment. The shows will also be co-located with another show, Restaurant, Pub & Bar Asia. All three events will be held on 29th September to 1st October 2020 at Suntec Singapore.
Read MoreKunming, 13th January: In China’s second and third tier cities, there is no shortage of under-used exhibition venues that are simply too large for the market that the venues are meant to serve. One of the best examples of this is the 310,000 m2 Kunming Dianchi Convention & Exhibition Center (DCEC).
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Read MoreShanghai, 6th January: China had a bumpy year in 2019 with the on-going trade war with the U.S. and the political protests in Hong Kong. Now in early 2020, a new, potentially serious and disruptive health crisis appears to be emerging in Wuhan.
Read MoreNew Delhi, 10th January: The 27th edition of Informa Markets’ SATTE opened this week at the India Expo Mart venue in New Delhi. SATTE is one of India’s leading B2B travel trade exhibitions. SATTE was held from 8th to 10th January.
The three-day event featured approximately 1,050 exhibitors and it attracted 1,200 international visitors from more than 50 countries. In total, more 30,000 travel and tourism professionals attended the exhibition.
Hong Kong, 2nd January: The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) organised several events this week: the 46th HKTDC Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair, the 11th Hong Kong Baby Products Fair and the 20th Hong Kong International Stationery Fair.
Read MoreHangzhou, 8th January: This week, Reuters interviewed Wang Mingqiang, the head of Alibaba’s AliExpress platform in Hangzhou. The key take-away from that discussion was that Alibaba is now committed to tackling the European e-commerce market.
Read MoreAfter 12 years, Derek Mapp will leave the role that he has held since 2008. Mapp oversaw a long list of strategic initiatives including the US$5 billion acquisition of UBM in 2018.
Alibaba has been making investments in India for years. Baidu’s CEO, Robin Li made his first trip to India this week looking for AI talent.
Alibaba updates could easily fill this newsletter. There is always plenty of interesting articles on the e-commerce giant. Here Forbes breaksdown the group’s revenue sources.
Alibaba looks to extend its reach into every corner of the globe. This article reviews the group’s ambitions in Africa.
Abu Dhabi continues to make moves to build its foothold as a key centre of business events in the Middle East.
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Read MoreSingapore, 18th December: Despite a three-week (and hopefully permanent) break from violent protests, Hong Kong has suffered its first loss of a B2B exhibition. Until now, there has been one cancelation (Diversified Communications’ Seafood Expo Asia) and one conference led-exhibition relocation to Bangkok (Terrappin’s Asia Rail Expo).
This week, Asia Fruit Logistica (AFL) announced that in 2020, the exhibition will be held at Singapore EXPO. While in Hong Kong, AFL was held at AsiaWorld-Expo. Next year, AFL will take place from 16th to 18th September at the Max Atria wing of Singapore EXPO. The organiser, Global Produce Events (GPE) cited the violent protests in Hong Kong as the reason for the relocation.
Singapore, 16th December: Tarsus Group is on a roll. The organiser has acquired the TyreXpo portfolio of events from SingEx’s organiser arm. This is Tarsus’ third deal in two weeks following the previously announced acquisition of Smarter Shows and Bizbash.
In Singapore, the biennial event is, of course, hosted at Singapore EXPO. This year’s edition reportedly attracted more than 200 exhibitors covering 12,000 m2 and it featured 2,500 professional trade visitors. TyreXpo was launched in 1997 and the event is a good fit with Tarsus’ existing automotive portfolio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Shanghai, 12th December: In other Tarsus news, the group reported that Labelexpo Asia 2019, now in its 9th edition, was the largest to date. The exhibition posted an 18% increase in trade visitors and 26% increase in net space sold.
Labelexpo Asia 2019 was held at Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) on 3rd to 6th December. The four-day show attracted nearly 24,000 visitors and featured 350 exhibitors showcasing the latest label and package printing machinery, technology innovations and related products.
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