Macau is taking yet another page from Las Vegas and turning to the lucrative trade show circuit as yet another way of boosting profits in this money-driven metropolis.

Having surpassed Las Vegas in gambling revenue last year, Macau is looking to broaden its economic base by keeping tourists in the city for longer periods of time. While casino earnings constitute nearly all of Macau’s earnings, in Las Vegas, they make up only about 40 percent of tourist-related revenue. According to a recent article in The Atlantic Monthly by James Fallows, the average Las Vegas visitor stays for nearly four days, while in Macau, the casino-centered day trip remains the norm.

But Macau is hoping to change that by cashing in on the lucrative convention trade with halls and exhibition centers, as well as plenty of new hotel rooms for all the conventioneers quickly taking shape.

Kenfair International Limited, a leading trade fair organizer in Hong Kong, is taking the lead to capitalize on business opportunities in former Portuguese colony by launching a brand new trade fair-Mega Macao. Held from October 18-20, Mega Macau will be the first-ever trade exhibition of its kind and scale according to the firm’s press release.

“Macau has an exhibition industry with immense unexploited potential” said Herbert Ip, chairman of Kenfair International. “For our new show, we have lined up over 1,000 leading suppliers from major Asian countries and regions to showcase their wide range of top-notch yet very competitively priced products.”

The trade fair, which is scheduled between the two phases of the Canton Fair, is being held in the newly-built Venetian Convention and Exhibition Center. Open since August, the center - part of the Venetian Macau mega resort complex – features 100,000 square meters of conference and exhibition space, 70,000 square meters of which is dedicated to exhibitions and can accommodate up to 5,000 booths at a time.