China’s Exhibition Industry Grew by RMB 100 Billion in 2018

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) recently released the Annual Report on China’s Exhibition Industry 2018. Feng Yaoxiang, head of CCPIT’s investment department, said that as an important tool to promote trade and investment, China’s exhibition services generated about RMB 100 billion in revenue in 2018.

The report shows that in 2018, 76 exhibition organizers across China participated in 718 projects in 33 countries along the Belt and Road, accounting for 42.9 percent of the total exhibition projects, up by 14.3 percent compared with 2017.

China’s overseas self-organized exhibitions became increasingly mature and its presence on the international market was expanded. The growth of the total supply of exhibition venues slowed, and the overall occupancy rate of the market increased significantly.

Setting all the achievements aside, China’s exhibition industry is in a transitional period, and problems are mainly reflected in the following aspects: unplanned construction of exhibition venues and low overall utilization; unbalanced regional distribution and unreasonable industrial structure; lack of professionals and low management efficiency; insufficient supporting facilities and poor service quality; and low internationalization degree and poor market status.