The biggest-ever June Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair will open its doors at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre next week.
Celine Lau, the director of jewellery fairs for UBM Asia, said the fair will house more than 1700 exhibitors from 36 countries and regions in 64,000 square metres − 14 percent bigger than any other June fair.
She said this growth confirmed the industry’s recognition of the June Fair as an effective way to promote products and meet target buyers.
“Hong Kong is a leading jewellery trade hub,” she said.
“In 2011, it was the world’s fifth largest exporter of precious jewellery and a lot of these exports are transacted at our jewellery fairs.”
“(In addition) Hong Kong’s proximity to the booming economies of mainland China, India and the rest of Asia has made the city the preferred launch pad for companies looking to break into these markets.”
Indeed, the June fair looks set to follow in the footsteps of the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair which “showed yet again why it is the world’s No 1 jewellery event” with “more than 3450 exhibitors from 46 countries and regions” and “51,500 trade professionals from 1155 countries and regions” – the biggest exhibitor and visitor figures in its history.
Buyers from China (11,483) and India (3519) formed the biggest groups of visitors to the Fair from outside Hong Kong followed by the US with 2423 visitors.
Lau said strong visitor attendance from China and India (which recorded 45 and 12 percent respective increases over 2010) was not surprising “considering that these two markets are the main drivers of jewellery demand today” but the growth in visitor attendance from the US and Italy (29 and 42 percent) was “more encouraging”.
“There was also notable growth in visitor numbers from Brazil, Israel, Iran, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. This tells us clearly that apart from traditional and mainstream jewellery markets, there are emerging markets that show great potential to become a force of growth in the future.”
This month’s Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair will be held from June 21-24.