MACAO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Macao's exhibition industry recorded income of nearly 54 million U.S. dollars, and sales of net exhibition space is over 50 percent more than the figure five years earlier, the special administrative region's investment promotive body said on Tuesday.

Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute said that the Union des Foires Internationales (UFI) recently issued the "Trade Fair Industry in Asia14th Edition", a document recording the development of the Asian MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry in 2017.

According to that document, some 26 B2B exhibitions that took place in Macao in 2017 were included in the UFI statistics.

It also said that Macao is one of the youngest and smallest MICE markets in Asia, but has achieved the most in the MICE market in Asia over the past five years. Net sales of exhibition space in Macao rose from 143,000 square meters in 2013 to 217,500 squares meters in 2017, representing an increase of 52.1 percent, the highest growth in Asia.

Meanwhile, each professional exhibition in Macao recorded an average revenue of approximately 2.1 million U.S. dollars, indicating that Macao's MICE market surpassed the overall economic performance.

UFI annually engages consulting companies to study professional exhibitions (B2B events) for merchants in all parts of Asia, and accordingly issues the "Trade Fair Industry in Asia" report as an important reference for international exhibition organizers and exhibition managers.?