(Yicai) Dec. 28 -- Wuhan in central Hubei province held the most exhibitions in a decade this year as China’s exhibition market is recovering.

Wuhan held 1,010 exhibitions in 2023, including many national ones such as the China 5G + Industrial Internet Conference and the sixth China International Industrial Design Exhibition, in a 66 percent jump from a year earlier. And the exhibition area soared over three-and-a-half fold to 3.5 million square meters, attracting more than 3.7 million exhibitors.

Wuhan aims to host 1,000 exhibitions and festivals, including 40 international ones, in 2025, which equates to nearly 3 exhibitions a day on average. They will cover an area of 3.5 million square meters.

Just yesterday the metropolis held a promotional event for the convention and exhibition industry and 20 projects were signed up. It has also quadrupled the amount of incentives and subsidies to encourage more large exhibitions to be held in the city.

Revenue in the global exhibition sector this year is expected to reach 97 percent of that in 2019, proof that the industry is recovering rapidly, according to a report by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.

Other Chinese cities are also rolling out policies to spur the exhibition economy. The Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone in central Henan province said in September that it will channel CNY30 million (USD4.2 million) to support the exhibition industry each year. Beijing also recently stressed the importance of streamlining the conference process. And Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province is offering financial incentives to encourage exhibition firms at home and abroad to set up branches in the city.

Despite the strong recovery of the exhibition economy, it is still difficult to attract exhibitors as business vitality needs to recover more, an expert said. Exhibitors also have high expectations of the quality of exhibitions as they expect good returns, he added.

Editor: Kim Taylor