After the summer break, business is picking up again this week at around 70 exhibition centers in Germany. The first event is Gamescom in Cologne (August 21 to 25), the world’s largest event for computer and video games. Among the 130 trade fairs scheduled until the end of the year are the International Metalworking Fair AMB in Stuttgart (September 10 to 14), the International Trade Fair for Plastics Processing Fakuma in Friedrichshafen (October 15 to 19), and the leading trade fair for professional animal husbandry Eurotier in Hanover (November 12 to 15). After more than 20 years, the World Congress of the Trade Fair Industry is also returning to Germany. The summit meeting of the organizing and exhibiting industries will take place in Cologne from November 20 to 23.
The first half of 2024 was extraordinarily successful for trade fairs in Germany, as initial surveys by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) show: compared to the same period of the previous year, the 188 trade fairs held between January and June attracted 120,000 exhibiting companies (+7 percent) and 6.7 million visitors (+1 percent). The positive results are especially noteworthy in light of the strikes in local, rail, and air transport recorded in the first quarter, which affected a total of 50 trade fairs. According to AUMA’s projections, up to 250,000 fewer people traveled to trade fairs — an average of eleven percent fewer guests than at the previous events. Meanwhile, the exhibition space at the fairgrounds increased by seven percent to 4.2 million square meters.
Philip Harting, Chairman of the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry AUMA: “Three things stand out at the mid-year point for trade fairs: Germany’s leading trade fairs are attracting the world like never before. The internationality of our exhibitors and visitors has rarely been higher. These days, we are also seeing with pleasure that more and more decision-makers are attending trade fairs. This means that quality is rising and the trade fair concepts are keeping pace with the times. And after the international and national trade fairs, many regional trade fairs are also bouncing back after the major setback of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are important for the local economy and for end consumers. All of this shows how firmly trade fairs are cemented as key hubs.”
The new AUMA Organiser Outlook 2024/2025 highlights the current challenges for the trade fair organizing industry. In addition to coping with rising cost shares (ranked 1), attracting visitors (2) and exhibitors (3) after the pandemic are high on the list of priorities. The current strained economic situation in Germany is also considered a critical issue (4).
A total of 81 percent of the 170 trade fair organisers surveyed state that new demands from visitors and exhibitors are making greater investments in technology and personnel necessary. The survey also shows that the German trade fair industry sees artificial intelligence (AI) as an opportunity: a total of 63 percent have a positive view of the new technologies, while fewer than four percent see AI as a risk.
