German trade fair industry

Economic significance | Structure | Functions | German trade fair competence | Outlook | German Trade Fair Quality Abroad (GTQ) |

Visitors

17% of the visitors come from companies with over 1,000 employees, often including the top decision makers from the large global groups. 54% of the trade visitors come from companies with fewer than100 employees. The share of managing directors, board members or self-employed businessmen among trade visitors is 30%, among the foreign visitors it is even as high as 48%. The share of decision-makers among all visitors is 61%. Foreign visitors have above-average decision making competence: three-quarters have a decisive or co-decisive influence.

How trade fairs rate in the buying and procurementprocess

According to senior executives, trade fairs represent one of the most important elements of the purchasing and procurement process. During the initial phase of decision-making, that of obtaining market information, trade fairs even rank first. At this stage66% of senior executives regard them as important or very important. The second most important elements are company websites (59%) and trade publications(51%). At 47% and 35%, visits by company sales representatives and mail shots/brochures rank fourth and fifth respectively.

A reader survey in spring 2009 which polled senior executives in business and administration revealed that more and more senior executives visit trade fairs. Ac-cording to the survey, around 2 million senior executives attend trade fairs both as buyers and in order to obtain information, equivalent to 84% of senior executives overall. For job reasons around 900,000 visitors in a decision-making capacity attend trade fairs more than once a year.

Furthermore, according to the analysis, young executives from German businesses in particular visit trade fairs just as often as their older colleagues. In the age group up to 39, 85% of all respondents attend trade fairs, with 68% visiting at least once a year. Top-floor senior executives attend trade fairs as well: 90% of them go to trade fairs.

Objectives

The trade visitors at German trade fairs primarily pursue information objectives: almost half of all visitors want to gather information about new products (48%), while 41% of respondents are striving for a general market orientation; over one-third are looking for further training and extending their knowledge, and 29% expect to participate in an exchange of experience and information.

A further major group of visitors pursues specific business objectives: thus 23% of visitors come with the aim of making business contacts, 24% prepare decisions or wish to conclude contracts. Foreign visitors are even more interested in specific business objectives: 31% of them want to make business contacts, 35% make buying decisions or make preparations for them.

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German trade fair industry: Functions & outlook [continue]