Since the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government rolled out the two-month public consultation for its upcoming five-year plan, business chambers and industry bodies have been deeply engaged in defining what their sectors should look like by 2031 and beyond. This exercise has acted as a catalyst, forcing business chambers, industry associations, professional bodies, and think tanks to dig deep to generate visionary ideas that extend well beyond the annual or biennial tenures of their current leadership. The meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) sector, a core pillar of the tourism industry, is no different.
The MICE sector occupies a unique position in Hong Kong’s policy architecture, sitting at the intersection of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau’s (CSTB) tourism mandate and the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau’s (CEDB) trade and industry portfolio. This dual lineage is both a strength, reflecting the sector’s multifaceted nature, and a governance challenge, as no single bureau currently holds a comprehensive view of the sector’s contribution to the Hong Kong economy.
MICE visitors are high-yield business travelers; data from tourism authorities of leading MICE destinations show that they spend twice or thrice as much as regular leisure tourists, and are much more valuable than those who are just coming to attend a concert. The growth of this group of travelers should remain the primary key performance indicator (KPI), with corresponding tourism receipts contributing directly to Hong Kong’s economy under the first five-year plan.
With that KPI established, the game plan must focus on two fronts: attracting prestigious new international shows and encouraging local event organizers to innovate with new concepts. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the SAR government’s cumulative HK$3.1 billion ($395 million) pool of funding support has provided a timely, necessary impetus to the sector. Although this targeted funding concluded earlier this year, it successfully boosted operator confidence, sustained existing exhibitions, and brought back premier events temporarily lost to Singapore during the pandemic, including Cosmoprof Asia, Jewellery and Gem World, and Vinexpo Asia.
Apart from promoting Hong Kong as a premier MICE destination, the five-year plan must also include a road map to encourage environmental, social, and governance policy adoption for venues, seed local innovation, and establish a unified MICE authority for cross-bureau policy collaboration. These are steps that can effectively turn fertilizer into lasting soil
Building on this momentum, the government has turned its attention to securing fresh overseas events. A new HK$100 million fund targets high-end, big-ticket exhibitions. Yet for global organizers, subsidies are just one of many variables when choosing a host city; they consider venue capacity, connectivity, logistics, talent, and the broader business environment. What they need above all is the right “soil” for their shows to take root. Subsidies are the “fertilizer” that accelerates growth, but the quality of the underlying landscape is more important.
To appeal to global exhibition giants, Hong Kong should first examine how regional competitors position themselves. Look no further than Singapore. Underpinned by its Tourism 2040 vision, the city-state is positioning itself as the “World’s Best MICE City” through world-class venue infrastructure, targeted government incentives, and a relentless focus on environmental sustainability. Its blueprint includes an ambitious KPI to triple MICE sector receipts from its 2019 baseline to S$4.5 billion ($3.5 billion) by 2040. Singapore’s planned Downtown MICE Hub at Straits View, scheduled for the mid-2030s, exemplifies a “hub-within-hubs” philosophy, positioning new capacity within three kilometers of Suntec City and Marina Bay Sands to capture spillover activity rather than dispersing the ecosystem.
The HK$100 million fund has succeeded in one critical respect: It has put Hong Kong back on the radar of global exhibition organizers. To convert this initial momentum into lasting growth, Hong Kong must now address the sector’s policy governance issues that have fragmented its MICE strategy. What Hong Kong lacks is a unified MICE authority with cross-bureau authority. The Hong Kong Tourism Board is the natural lead agency, but without a dual reporting line to both the CSTB and CEDB, it remains a marketing arm rather than a strategic driver. The five-year plan should establish an inter-bureau body with the mandate to attract global operators and nurture local organizers.
Venue availability has long been a bottleneck for Hong Kongs MICE sector. The five-year plan must deliver a masterplan in fully utilizing currently underused spaces, upgrading facilities to meet evolving operator needs, and expediting the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and AsiaWorld-Expo extensions. Furthermore, while a venue in the Northern Metropolis may not be a priority for the five-year plan, there should at least be a sector-specific dialogue on strategic land use for non-venue functions, including logistics hubs for exhibition materials, production, and stage rehearsal facilities, and warehousing for event infrastructure — functions that do not require prime city-center land but are critical to a resilient MICE ecosystem.
If we are to attract global MICE operators, a strong focus on sustainability is of paramount importance. For example, exhibition giants such as Informa Markets and RX (formerly Reed Exhibitions) now operate under corporate mandates to reduce event-related emissions. Most of their events require verified Scope 3 data as a prerequisite just to clear initial destination screenings. By integrating Global Sustainable Tourism Council standards across our infrastructure, Hong Kong can deliver the plug-and-play, low-carbon data sheets that multinational corporate clients demand.
Attracting premier overseas shows is only half the equation. To build a truly resilient MICE ecosystem, we must also nurture homegrown talent by motivating local organizers to innovate and create new events. The proposed unified MICE authority would be the natural home for this effort, with a mandate to seed local innovation alongside attracting global operators. Hong Kong should consider a dedicated MICE incubation fund to seed innovative, scalable local event concepts over a multiyear horizon, recognizing that no new exhibition breaks even in its first year. This is another example of the strategic “fertilizer” that can turn today’s ideas into tomorrow’s mega events.
This would be underpinned by concrete targets for securing new international events which track new event launches alongside attendance growth, and for growing Hong Kong’s share of the global exhibition calendar. But a KPI alone is not enough; the city needs an actionable agenda. Apart from promoting Hong Kong as a premier MICE destination, the five-year plan must also include a road map to encourage environmental, social, and governance policy adoption for venues, seed local innovation, and establish a unified MICE authority for cross-bureau policy collaboration. These are steps that can effectively turn fertilizer into lasting soil. If we can get them right, Hong Kong may soon find itself at the pinnacle of the International Congress and Convention Association ranking and as the top choice for global event organizers.
The author is a senior lecturer at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, and co-chair of the Advocacy and Policy Research Committee, the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
