The 17th China Forum for International Cooperation in Convention and Exhibition Economy (CEFCO 2022) was held online and offline from January 12 to 14 in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. The reporter learned from the forum that in 2021, China's exhibition industry will continue to recover and develop on the basis of 2020, and the number of exhibitions and exhibition area have achieved rapid growth compared with the previous year. Feng Yaoxiang, Minister of the Department of Trade and Investment Promotion of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said at the forum that according to incomplete statistics, 2,949 economic and trade exhibitions will be held in China in 2021, an increase of 48.6%. The total exhibition area was 92.99 million square meters, up 27.2 percent year-on-year.
Zhang Shenfeng, vice chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the exhibition industry still plays a prominent role as an engine of economic development, playing an important role in driving economic growth, promoting opening-up and cooperation, increasing social employment and promoting urban development.
The "China Exhibition Economic Development Report 2021" (hereinafter referred to as the report) released at the forum shows that the pace of construction of large-scale exhibition halls in China in 2021 accelerated against the trend. In 2021, the number of exhibition halls nationwide will be 151, an increase of about 1.3%. The total indoor leasable area is approximately 10.34 million square meters, an increase of approximately 7.9% year-on-year.
The report pointed out that in 2021, the exhibition industry referred to it as the first year of the exhibition industry "meta-universe", the transformation of offline exhibitions to digital continues to accelerate, and major exhibition enterprises actively look for alternative models of offline exhibitions, and digital exhibitions have been accelerated.
According to the "Global Exhibition Industry Barometer" released by the International Exhibition Industry Association, 58% of industry respondents worldwide have added digital services and products to their existing exhibition offerings. All parts of China actively use digital exhibitions to integrate online and offline, connect international and domestic, help foreign trade enterprises seize opportunities, explore markets, and help Chinese and foreign enterprises maintain and expand international trade channels.
Experts said that at present, the global exhibition industry is in a critical period of innovation and upgrading, and a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change provides a new path for the innovative development of the exhibition industry. It is necessary to comply with the development trend of digitalization, networking and intelligence, create more new exhibitions that integrate online and offline, all-round and three-dimensional, constantly innovate management models, service models and operation models, improve the effect of exhibition, docking and negotiation, promote the industry to seek opportunities in crisis, turn crisis into opportunity, and achieve high-quality development.
Experts at the meeting pointed out that the new problems brought by the new formats of the exhibition industry deserve attention. Lin Shunjie, secretary of the Party Committee of China Exhibition Group, said that the online platform is still in the exploration stage, and many problems such as unstable profit model, unclear technical standards, and lack of data security can not be ignored. At present, offline exhibitions still play an irreplaceable role in on-site experience, interpersonal communication and information exchange.
