Profile of the South China Exhibitions Market (Update version)

Overview of exhibitions market in South China

This is an updated edition of the original report which was published in September 2007.

The South China exhibitions market remains one of the most active and important in Asia and it is rapidly emerging as one of the most important in the world. For the purposes of this report, BSG has defined South China as the area of Guangdong province within a 100 km radius of Hong Kong. Also known as the Pearl River Delta (PRD), this includes the major exhibition centres in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou and Shunde as well as Hong Kong and Macau.

In 2007, according BSG's estimates, 250 major business-to-business trade fairs were held in South China. That is a 26% increase over the 198 trade fairs held in 2006. The figure in 2005 was 166. That is an impressive 51% rise in just two years. The events which comprise this list vary year to year as new shows are launched and others are rotated out of South China to other parts of China, while others still are terminated.

Last year, BSG estimates that 4,150,000 m2 of space was sold at trade fairs in South China. This is a 3.7% increase over the 2006 figure. The estimated number of exhibitors was 207,500, an increase of close to 4%. The number of visitors to exhibitions in South China reached 14.3 million, an increase of nearly 30%. The number of visitors in 2006 was 11 million.