Find your fair

Trade fair industry

2025 Event Organisers' Survey: Turnover remains at record level

German trade fair organisers achieved a turnover of 4.4 billion euros in 2025. This means that business remains at the high level seen in the previous year. This is shown by the survey recently completed by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) among its member companies. This means that, for the second year running, turnover has exceeded the previous pre-pandemic high of 4.1 billion euros recorded in 2018 and 2019. Following the sharp slumps during the pandemic, organisers reached €4.4 billion for the first time in 2024. This level has now been maintained, even though fewer trade fairs took place in 2025 than in the previous year due to the regular cycle of events.

Twelve out of 16 companies reported revenue in excess of 50 million euros. Messe Frankfurt led the ranking with turnover of just under €766 million. It is followed by Messe München with 594.4 million euros and Koelnmesse with 455.5 million euros. Messe Berlin, Messe Düsseldorf, NürnbergMesse and Deutsche Messe in Hanover also each achieved turnover of more than 300 million euros. In addition to the trade fair business in Germany, the turnover figures also include the companies’ international business as well as their conference and service activities.

Due to the varying trade fair cycles, odd-numbered years are usually weaker than even-numbered years, as fewer trade fairs take place. In 2025, for example, there were 304 trade fairs, compared with 322 in 2024.

Several world-leading trade fairs, which took place as scheduled, contributed to the strong result in 2025. These include the world’s leading trade fair for construction machinery, bauma, in Munich; the plastics trade fair K and the trade fair for bakery, confectionery and snacks, iba, in Düsseldorf; the trade fair for the meat and protein industry, IFFA, in Frankfurt; the agricultural technology trade fair Agritechnica; the trade fair for production technology and metalworking, EMO, in Hanover; and the trade fair for the food industry, Anuga, in Cologne.

Key figures for 2025 show a slight increase

Around 192,000 exhibiting companies were recorded at the 304 trade fairs held in 2025, representing a slight increase of 0.7 per cent compared with previous events. Over 6.9 million square metres of stand space were let, a slight increase of 0.4 per cent. More than 12.7 million visitors attended the trade fairs, an increase of 1.9 per cent. In 2025, 66 per cent of all exhibitors and over 33 per cent of all visitors came from abroad. This once again underlines Germany’s position as the world’s leading trade fair destination.

A total of 319 trade fairs are planned for 2026. By the end of September, around 240 events had already taken place, with 79 trade fairs still scheduled before the end of the year.

Kerstin Scheffler

Manager Trade Fairs Germany

Ulrike Froeb

Manager Trade Fair Data Germany

back