The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair staged from 21 to 27 September at Hong Kong’s leading exhibition centres, was a great success due to a new hall and exhibit arrangement and a surprisingly strong attendance. With 3,061 exhibitors and exhibits on 120,000 square metres the Fair was the world’s largest jewellery event in 2009.
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The total number of trade visitors was up 5 percent to 39,146 - despite the difficult economic climate in the jewellery industry.
The event is the most international jewellery fair globally, featuring exhibitors from 44 countries, 21 group- and country pavilions and 23,248 visitors from overseas. In line with the shift in the global economic markets the amount of buyers from Asia, namely China and India increased, while the attendance from USA retracted slightly.
“The visitor figures are encouraging and they caught everyone by surprise,” said Ms Celine Lau, director of Jewellery Fairs, UBM Asia. “Though many insiders still doubt the recovery of the global economy, we saw a 5-percent increase in the number of visitors. Also, although the number of visitors from the United States is down, the rate of decline is less than what we expected. Sure the US economy remains challenging, but it is still the fourth best-represented country at the Fair in terms of visitor figures, ranking right after Hong Kong, China and India.”
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Also the new arrangement of product sectors contributed to the success of the fair: the clear allocation of jewellery materials to Asia World Expo and finished jewellery to HK Convention and Exhibition Centre helped buyers to prepare their trips and navigate supplier’s onsite more efficiently. Exhibitors and visitors confirmed that the improved arrangement has lead to more efficient sourcing.
Visitors were also helped with pre-fair information and onsite assistance provided by the media partners of the show, Jewellery News Asia, the publisher of the exhibition’s show daily, and JewelleryNetAsia the internet portal and sponsor of the newly launched onsite Product Locator Kiosks.
The next dates for the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair are 14 - 18 September 2010, at AsiaWorld-Expo (exhibit profile: diamonds, pearls, gemstones, equipment & packaging) and 16 - 20 September 2010, at Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (fine finished jewellery).
