Convention and Exhibition

The thriving convention and exhibition industry of Hainan province, China's southernmost tropical island, is expected to attract 30 million overnight attendees and take in 40 billion yuan of revenue by 2020.

In the first three quarters of 2018, the province hosted 14,200 conventions (all with over 100 attendees), up 14.8 percent year by year; The number of large-scale international conferences totaled 92, up 46 percent year by year; The exhibition area for 90 expositions recorded over 930,000 square meters, up 8.6 percent year on year.

The provincial capital Haikou alone hosted over 9,000 conventions and exhibitions, bringing in a business revenue of 12.2 billion yuan, increasing by 18 percent compared with the same period last year. By the end of October 2018, there are 12,960 convention and exhibition enterprises registered in Haikou city.

In 2017, Hainan held nearly 18,000 conventions, attracting a total of 19.5 million overnight attendees, and industry revenue reached 14.5 billion yuan (about $2.2 billion). According to figures released at the China International Conference Industry Week, the average annual revenue growth of the industry hit 12 percent over the past three years. The added value of convention and exhibition industry reached 8 billion yuan, increasing by 15.4 percent. It's the fourth fastest growing pillar industry in Hainan.

The tropical island province is intending to build itself into an international convention and exhibition center. It has been well known for hosting grand events, including the Boao Forum, a BRICS Summit, the first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leader's Meeting, and a Roundtable Conference on China-Africa Cooperation.