Hong Kong Trade Fair Attendance Up 16%

The ceremony at the opening of the fair at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre.

The world’s largest jewelry trade fair has lived up to its billing by smashing attendance records.

The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, which concluded September 25, saw its attendance increase by 16.3 percent, according to its organizer, UBM Asia. A total of 51,500 trade professionals from 155 countries and regions had the opportunity to view the product and services of more than 3,450 exhibitors from 46 countries. It was the largest exhibitor and visitor turnout in the Fair’s history.

Buyers from China formed the biggest group of visitors from outside Hong Kong with 11,483, up 45 percent from last year. Buyers from India followed with 3,519 visitors, up 12 percent from last year. The United States placed third with 2,423, up 29 percent from last year.

“The strong visitor attendance from China and India was not surprising, considering that these two markets are the main drivers of jewelry demand today. What was even more encouraging was the growth in visitor attendance from the United States and Italy—29 and 42 percent, respectively,” said Celine Lau, director of Jewellery Fairs, UBM Asia. “There was also notable growth in visitor numbers from Brazil, Israel, Iran, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. This tells us clearly that apart from traditional and mainstream jewelry markets, there are emerging markets that show great potential to become a force of growth in the future.”

The September fair was held in two venues: AsiaWorld-Expo from September 19 to 23, and the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre from September 21 to 25.

Other highlights of the trade fair, include:

* More than 114,000 daily visits were recorded during the Fair.

* Hong Kong-based visitors totaled 16,931, accounting for about 33 percent of the total number of visitors. The rest of the visitors: 34,569, or about 67 percent of the overall total, were from overseas.

* The trade fair organized 27 buyers’ delegation comprising a total of 1,300 buyers from China, Finland, India, Israel, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Russia. Members of the China delegation came from 14 provinces and cities.

* The number of overseas visitors grew by 21.4 percent from last year.