The “record-breaking” 30th edition of the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair attracted 3526 exhibitors and 51,977 buyers from around the world.
UBM Asia jewellery fair director Celine Lau said the Hong Kong Fair continues to demonstrate its strength as the world’s number one fine jewellery event.
“The 30th edition is an important milestone in the Fair’s history and we are glad to see record-breaking visitor and exhibitor numbers mark this occasion,” she said.
“For us, these figures build on the September Fair’s strong reputation for quality as well as quantity.
“Given the economic challenges in the Euro Zone and the US economy’s slow recovery, our exhibitors are understandably looking for opportunities to capture a slice of the healthy jewellery markets, and the September Fair offered them such opportunity.”
Hong Kong-based visitors (16,774) accounted for about 32 percent of the total number of visitors to the Fair.
The largest group of visitors from outside Hong Kong came from mainland China (13,412), India (2800), the US (2148), Taiwan (1753), Thailand (1726), Japan (1364), Korea (1051), Philippines (968) Indonesia (814), Australia (793) and the Russian Federation (758).
Lau said that this year’s visitor numbers from China were 16.8 percent higher than at last year’s fair.
“This illustrates China’s strength as a jewellery market and the potential for further growth,” she said.
“We also had notable growth in visitor numbers from the Russia Federation, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Mexico. Over the next several years, we see these emerging markets playing a bigger role in the jewellery industry worldwide.”