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The finished jewelry section of the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair (HKCEC) opened Friday with the ceremonial dragon dance offering good luck to all exhibitors and buyers.
The fair officially opened two days earlier at the AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE) convention center near the Hong Kong international airport with companies that specialize in diamonds, gems, pearls and other jewelry making materials. However, the jewelry portion of the fair, which displays products ranging from the most basic to the most exclusive, marks the true start of the annual event.
It is one of the world’s largest jewelry and gem fairs, if not the largest, and with the continued economic growth in China and other Asian markets, it is one of the most important events on the jewelry industry calendar. UBM Asia, which owns and operates the trade show, said in terms of exhibitors, 3,700, it is the largest in the fair’s history. Whether that results in more buyers attending will be known in the next few days.
It is also the most international of all jewelry shows. At any given moment somewhere on the 135,000 square meters of exhibit space you will see Japanese pearl jewelry exhibitors doing business with retailers from Dubai, Chinese jewelry manufacturers selling to South American distributors and Polish amber jewelers selling to the Chinese market. In addition, it’s a true business show. There are few new product launches or big corporate events. All of the action is done at the booths.
The day at HKCEC began with a large number of people in registration lines and even larger numbers of buyers waiting in long lines for the doors to fair to open. A large crowd also gathered around the dragon dance performers just as the doors opened to the fair.
While all of the trading is going on, Super Typhoon Mangkhut is barreling towards Hong Kong, described as a Signal 9 storm, among the strongest on the 10-plus point scale. If it does hit Hong Kong and remains a Category 9, the show will at least temporarily close Sunday.
The materials portion of the show at the AWE will end Sunday and the finished jewelry at the HKCEC will run till Tuesday.
A total of 24,861 visitors from 109 countries and regions attended the June Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair. The four-day fair, which concluded June 26 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, featured 2,210 exhibitors in 70,000 square meters of exhibition space.
“We are glad to see the overall number of visitors has remained steady compared to last year’s edition even under the current challenging world economy,” said Celine Lau, Director of Jewellery Fairs, UBM Asia. “The number of visitors from Korea, Myanmar and Cambodia increased 72%, 45% and 43%, respectively. The implication of this growth is that the purchasing power of these emerging markets is unquestionable. Even more exciting is the increase of 15% of the visitor numbers from a traditional jewelry market, North America. The figures further confirm the strong position of the June Fair in the industry.”
Below are detailed visitor numbers at the June Fair:
* The total number of visitors over four days reached 24,861. These visitors, from 109 countries and regions, made 46,814 visits during the fair’s four-day run;
* Visitors from outside Hong Kong totaled 15,988, accounting for 64% of the total number of visitors;
* Hong Kong-based visitors totaled 8,873;
* The Top 10 sources of visitors from outside Hong Kong and mainland China were India, Taiwan region, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Korea, Singapore, Australia and Indonesia. Overall, the Top 10 visiting countries accounted for 18.8% of the total number of visitors.
The June Fair will mark its 30th anniversary next year. Lau said new enhancements are being planned.
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