Resumption of offline exhibitions energizes market

An employee of an exhibitor shows a virtual reality product at a metaverse conference and exhibition held in Kunshan, east China's Jiangsu province, Feb. 15, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Congyu)

As China has optimized COVID-19 response measures and resumed economic activities, offline exhibitions are gradually coming back.

A number of major exhibitions are attracting global attention, such as the International Building and Construction Trade Fair 2023, the Beijing International Beauty Expo, the China (Shenzhen) Cross-border E-commerce Fair, and the Global Sports Fashion Exhibition.

"After major offline exhibitions restarted, the number of staff of our exhibition team has once again risen to over 100," said Liu Hong, vice president of Kuka Home, a Chinese upholstery furniture manufacturer.

To better meet Chinese and foreign consumers' demand for sofas, beds, tea tables, dining tables, and office chairs, the company is planning to promote brand-new designing schemes at exhibitions and will launch some of them at the 2023 China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou) which will be hosted in March, Liu noted.

Liu believes that exhibitions are of remarkable significance because they directly present products to professionals and citizens, and help purchasers gain a deeper understanding of suppliers' strength and competitiveness through forums, speeches, and interactive activities.

A man drives on a virtual driving simulator at the Global Digital Trade Expo held in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province between Dec. 11 and 14, 2022. (People's Daily Online/Hu Xiaofei)

Recently, many foreign exhibition companies have come to China to host trade shows.

The 17th Automechanika Exhibition was jointly hosted by the Shanghai branch of leading event organizer Messe Frankfurt and China National Machinery Industry International Co., Ltd. from Feb. 15 to 18 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province. The exhibition was joined by around 3,500 enterprises in the auto industry.

Stephan Buurma, Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt Asia, told People's Daily that many enterprises are optimistic about China's market potential. He said that the company has been speeding up its preparations for holding exhibitions in China since this year, hoping to involve more enterprises around the world in China's economic recovery.

China's economic recovery would energize market entities. According to statistics, there were about 4.82 million operational enterprises across China engaged in meeting and exhibition services as of Feb. 10. Since 2023, 68,000 such companies have newly opened. In particular, about 19,800 were set up in the first 10 days of February, up 110.6 percent from a year ago.

Many local governments have rolled out a new round of policies to spur the recovery of the exhibition industry since this month.

The photo taken in October 2022 shows the fourth-phase project of the Canton Fair Complex under construction. The project covers a total area of 560,000 square meters. Upon completion, it will offer 6,000 new exhibition booths, new exhibition halls, a conference center and an administration center. It will be the world's largest exhibition complex that sees the most dynamic activities and boasts the most complete functions and supporting facilities. (People's Daily Online/Wei Jinsong)

Southwest China's Sichuan province, proposing to launch a campaign to expand business in the international market, will help organize over 100 major international exhibitions and trade activities and render support to enterprises joining both domestic and foreign exhibitions.

Hunan province said it supports foreign trade companies attending overseas exhibitions and will offer financial support for those joining major overseas exhibitions.

Apart from that, many large exhibition organizations are also taking active measures to provide quality services.

Chu Shijia, director general of the China Foreign Trade Center, said the organizers of the 133rd Canton Fair will upgrade exhibition areas and set up new themes to highlight trade upgrading, industrial progress, and technological innovation. Besides, an investment-themed sub-forum will be hosted to facilitate the trade sector, Chu added.

The National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), in accordance with the standards adopted by the China International Import Expo, will launch 37 innovative services this year to improve the service quality of exhibitions.