Hong Kong events industry pleads for a lifeline as pandemic wipes out trade shows, putting thousands of jobs at risk
- With 50 exhibitions, conferences cancelled so far, companies say they face massive losses
- More trade shows are going virtual, bringing global exhibitors and buyers together online, but closing deals remains difficult, they say
Exhibition planner Joe Wong Chu-kong’s heart sank when the annual Hong Kong Book Fair was cancelled two days before it was due to open last month.
His team of workers had spent four weeks setting up booths for exhibitors, and now they had to remove everything and clear out of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.
“I called my truck drivers who were on the way to deliver materials and told them to just turn around and call it a day,” recalled Wong, a project manager for Toy Exhibition Limited who has been in the business for 15 years.
“It was heartbreaking,” Wong said. “The cancellation was out of my control. I felt helpless because I had to find ways to pay my staff even if we did not get compensated.”
The pandemic has dealt a massive blow to Hong Kong’s Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry, with event planning companies facing millions of dollars in lost income, and thousands of jobs at risk.