Impact of industrial clusters on mainland china’s exhibition destination development

Abstract

Trade-to-trade exhibitions referring to stand-alone market events held regularly and usually at a fixed location where a large number of companies from one or more industrial sectors present their main product range to commercial/business buyers. This paper employed both in-depth interviews and surveys to explore the exhibitors’ perceptions of and the impact of ‘industrial clusters’ on exhibition destination development. This research developed a two-dimensional scale for the construct and indicated that most exhibitors prefer exhibition destinations that are highly developed in the specific industry sector for the exhibition and near the manufacturing base. The impacts of the two sub-dimensions of cluster effect on exhibition destination attractiveness appear to be different.