The organisers of the Jewellery & Gem World (JGW) Fair have revealed that this year’s exhibition will take place in Singapore, not Hong Kong.
The exhibition is expected to take place on 23-27 September, with organisers pursuing a more ‘accessible’ in-person experience.
The change of venue is expected to be a one-off arrangement, with the decision to change location made with pandemic restrictions on travel in mind, according to organiser Informa Markets.
Celine Lau, director of Jewellery Fairs at Informa Markets said, “Even against the background of a pandemic, Singapore has the capacity to securely and efficiently host the world’s most iconic jewellery show.”
“Suppliers who are serious about business will be at JGW Singapore, and we are confident that global buyers in decision-making roles will make the trip to the city-state to join us on the show floor,” she said.
Hong Kong has been plagued with another COVID outbreak in recent months and restrictions on travel and public gathering remain in place.
At the same time, Singapore has eased travel and social distancing restrictions making the city-state an attractive destination to the in-person event.
“As the longstanding home base of the most important jewellery fair in the world, Hong Kong is almost always mentioned in the same breath as JGW. In fact, it has become an annual tradition for thousands of suppliers and buyers to travel to Hong Kong every September,” Lau said.
“Our community can rest assured that Hong Kong will be ready to deliver the full JGW experience in 2023 when conditions allow for safe and responsible in-person interactions, and international travel restrictions are lifted.”
David Bondi, senior vice president at Informa Markets said, “The last two years have been extremely challenging for everybody, and we, as an industry, have been doing our utmost to not only keep businesses running, but moving forward.”
“Industry stakeholders overwhelmingly told us they wanted safe and secure physical fairs that they could participate in, and Informa Markets delivered by successfully hosting enhanced large-scale in-person events in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia in the last several months, with many more firmly scheduled for 2022 and beyond,” he said.
Bondi also noted that the Jewellery, Gem & Technology Dubai, which recently concluded, attracted buyers from more than 100 countries and demonstrated the need for face-to-face interactions.
Informa Markets has also scheduled special-edition fairs such as the Jewellery & Gem Asia Hong Kong event running 16-19 June, Jewellery & Gem WORLD Hong Kong on 16-19 September, and Jewellery & Gem ASEAN Bangkok on 2-5 November.
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