Of Mice and Maths

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post writer Jake van der Kamp is popular for his grouchy business columns which typically question those he considers self-righteous about their assumptions. He is particularly fond of poking sticks at those running the Hong Kong government and its associated bodies such as the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Today, he takes a dig at the HKTB's outgoing chair, Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee of the Hong Kong Tourism Board for saying that "the city should focus on being the 'events capital of Asia' since per capita spending by the MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] market averages about HK$10,000 compared with HK$4,600 for other tourists." He asks:

And can we really be certain that the mice market is the one for us in the future? I ask because prowling out there at the moment is a mice-eater in a different league from the HKTB. He goes by the name of Sheldon Adelson and his big mice trap, the Venetian in Macau, has now been topped out. It will soon be baited for business.

One correspondent pointed out to me that he needs shouldn't be so dismissive of the $10,000 number. It may be a little too rounded in this statement but is, actually, based on quite solid research. I was also asked to remind Jake that the "E" in Mice (exhibitions) is a recurrent and particularly valuable business, a point overlooked by convention bureaux all over the world. So there.