Four Major Problems In The Development Of MICE Industry In China

At present, the scale of professional exhibitions in China is mostly below 20 thousand square meters, and the exhibition with a scale of 50 thousand square meters is less than 10 each year. In 2000, the Beijing international machine tool exhibition area of 60 thousand square meters, so far as the most in the country, but the scale is less than the 1/5 of similar foreign exhibitions. In Germany, the exhibition area of medium scale fair is also about 180 thousand square meters. In addition to the relatively small scale of exhibitions, the image of repeated exhibitions and exhibitions in China is also common. In June 1996 and July, China held the international automobile exhibition at the Beijing exhibition hall and the China International Exhibition Center. The result was that domestic and foreign exhibitors were in a dilemma. Finally, the relevant departments had to force the two auto exhibitions to merge.

Apart from the generally small scale, the single content of exhibition and the lagging of supporting services also affect the comprehensive competitiveness of China's MICE industry. Take the Shanghai CeBIT Asia Information exhibition held in Hannover Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center this year as an example. Although the whole exhibition is German style, there are many good ideas that can not be achieved. For example, Hannover CeBIT has a computer query system which requires all computers in the stadium to be connected to the Internet. However, the current Everbright Convention Center does not have such a condition. As a whole, China's Convention and exhibition industry has not yet formed a pattern of specialization and division of labor. The industry that provides professional services for exhibition activities is lagging behind. The organizers of the exhibition are both planners and specific implementers. From the exhibits collection, publicity and promotion to exhibition layout, activity arrangements, and even services such as accommodation and catering for exhibitors, they are all undertaken by the same group of people, thus greatly reducing the efficiency of exhibition and service quality.

　 Uneven distribution of structure

The structural imbalance of exhibition industry includes three meanings, first of all, the imbalance of regional structure, which is corresponding to the uneven distribution. There are two obvious manifestations of the regional structural imbalance of the exhibition industry in China: the first is the uneven development of regional MICE industry. That is to say, the level of exhibition industry development in different provinces and cities is obviously different, but it is not really "prominent and reasonable", because the Regional Convention and exhibition center system has not been established except for cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, even the main exhibition cities such as Shanghai and Beijing are not strong enough. The two is the failure of national control over the construction of exhibition venues. Because of the lack of scientific master plan, although the number of exhibition venues in the country is increasing, it still can not meet the needs of the exhibition market, so that the development of MICE industry has fallen into a vicious circle of "diseconomies of scale". On the spatial layout, the development of MICE industry in China shows the characteristics of "heaven and women scattered flowers". All provinces and cities have proposed developing the exhibition economy vigorously, while few cities have paid attention to their location, resource conditions and market environment.

Secondly, on the whole, the scale structure of the exhibition hall is unbalanced. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 150 exhibition venues in China. Among them, there are more than 30 exhibition pavilions covering 10 thousand square meters in the last 5 years. However, due to the unreasonable spatial layout and grade structure, the problem of "the supply can not meet the needs" generally appeared in the National Convention and exhibition industry. At present, the exhibition hall with an exhibition area of over 50 thousand square meters is only 4 of the China International Exhibition Center (Beijing), Shandong Expo Center, Fuzhou Exhibition Center and Wuhan International Exhibition Center. The total exhibition area of the top 10 exhibition halls is not equal to a venue of Hannover Expo exhibition hall.

In addition, the revenue structure caused by mice activities is unbalanced. From the front to the 2nd, there is no circulation from the left to the right. This shows that the vast majority of exhibitions in the country failed to integrate with tourism and other related industries at the very beginning, and there was a problem of disconnection in the overall sales promotion and supporting services. From convention and exhibition activities to tourism, shopping and other consumption, the number of participants was less and less. Tourism, culture and other departments were in a passive reception state. The main consumption of exhibitors and spectators was accommodation, catering, transportation, tickets and communications. The expenses of other projects were relatively small, and the income of various sectors of tourism was not balanced. The above three points are important manifestations of the immature exhibition industry.

　　 Product innovation is not enough.

At present, the development of MICE industry in China is still in the "extensive" stage of operation with small scale, low grade and insufficient innovation. Its most direct manifestation is the same product and repeated exhibition. In fact, the similarity of exhibition products is the inevitable result of the general small scale of the exhibition, because small and scattered pavilions are only suitable for small scale exhibitions, and the lack of professionals such as planning and marketing is bound to go on a low level. Generally speaking, the similarity of products in China's exhibition industry is mainly due to the following two reasons:

First, the industry management system is not perfect. At present, there is no unified industry management department in the domestic exhibition industry. According to the current exhibition management method, the various ministries and commissions of the State Council and its foreign trade companies and other institutions can hold exhibitions, resulting in the phenomenon of multi head exhibition, repeat exhibition and low-level exhibition. Secondly, apart from the local exhibitions Association in Beijing and Shenzhen, there is no national trade association in the domestic exhibition industry, and the industry self-regulation mechanism and coordination function is not perfect. Under such circumstances, no department is fully responsible for horizontal exchanges and contacts between international and domestic conferences and exhibitions, which can neither improve the level of internationalization of the exhibition industry nor coordinate the content, level and frequency of exhibitions. In addition, the Convention and exhibition market order is rather chaotic, and industry regulations need to be improved urgently. Although China has promulgated the decision on hosting foreign-related economic and technological exhibitions in China and the measures for exhibition management, it has made some provisions on bidding for various exhibitions, but these management measures have been difficult to adapt to the new situation of the development of MICE industry in China.

Second, enterprises are driven by short-term interests. Generally speaking, China's mice enterprises are greatly influenced by short-term economic interests. Most enterprises lack brand awareness and long-term concept. This backward business philosophy is reflected in the operation of exhibition activities, that is, "as many exhibitions as possible, without focusing on the accumulation of content and quality", thus affecting the establishment of domestic Convention and exhibition brands. For example, in 1999, Shanghai international exhibition company hosted 17 building materials exhibition, and the industrial commerce exhibition company hosted more than 50 Instruments Exhibition. The direct result of small scale repeat exhibition is that exhibitors and spectators are at a loss, customers diverge, resources are wasted, and the attraction of exhibition is not big, which ultimately restricts the specialization and intensification of China's exhibition industry.

　 Market disorder, talent shortage

Compared with the developed countries in Convention and exhibition industry, the market order of domestic exhibition industry is rather chaotic, especially the problem of small scale repeated exhibition. First of all, there is no authoritative department to carry out unified management and unified promotion of exhibition industry. Second, the government's behavior is obvious. Contrary to the "government leading and market operation" of foreign exhibition industry, large scale conferences or exhibitions in many cities are sponsored by the government. On the one hand, the government intervenes too much in the concrete operation of exhibition activities, and on the other hand, it does not play its due role in the important issues such as infrastructure construction and overall sales promotion. In addition, the domestic convention and exhibition industry has not yet formed a reasonable mechanism of sharing interests and division of labor, and the level of supporting services is generally low. Many exhibition organizers have no strength but want to take full responsibility for all activities of exhibitors, which eventually leads to decentralization of energy and lower service efficiency, which not only affects the quality of exhibition activities, but also restricts the formation of scale economies.

In the final analysis, the competition in the exhibition industry is the competition of talents. However, at present, there are very few talents in our country, especially in the exhibition planning, decoration and marketing. Many domestic exhibition organizers do not have a comprehensive understanding of the exhibition economy, and the overall quality of the organizers, managers and practitioners of exhibition activities needs to be improved. On the one hand, most of the Convention and exhibition workers come from all relevant industries, without specialized training, lack of systematic exhibition knowledge and corresponding working skills, thus restricting the level of exhibition and service quality of the exhibition industry in China. Because of this, at the Sixth International Automobile Exhibition in Beijing, all the materials of the German square's 2000 square metre special decoration were transported by air from Germany, and the construction workers were also from Germany. On the other hand, because these non professional exhibition organizers do not fully understand the exhibition economy, they do not know how to combine exhibition activities with tourism and other service industries. This not only reduces the efficiency of exhibition activities, but also affects exhibitors and spectators.