Regional trade fairs in Germany have overcome the coronavirus crisis. Around 36,000 exhibiting companies took part in the 132 regional trade fairs in Germany in 2023. This is over 70 percent more than in 2022. They occupied a stand area of almost 1.13 million square metres (+ 61 percent) and attracted the interest of 3.9 million visitors (+ 86 percent).

One year after the entry into force of the unitary patent system, the European Patent Office has already recorded 27,000 registrations of corresponding patents. The Unitary Patent will take its place alongside national and European patents and will be valid in all participating member states.

Berlin, 18 July 2024 // International visitors are returning to Germany as a trade fair venue with an impressively large presence. AUMA, the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, has now calculated the participation of exhibiting companies and visitors from abroad and the most important countries of origin for 2023.

Alliances are becoming stronger and cooperation between trade fair organisers is on the rise. This is one of eight current trends in the trade fair industry in Germany, according to the recently published annual publication "AUMA Trends 2024/2025" by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry AUMA.

The German trade fair industry is confident about the second half of the year and 2025: almost three quarters of organisers expect their trade fair formats to develop at least as well or even better than the international competition.

The EU Commission has decided to increase visa fees from 80 to 90 euros. The fees for obtaining a visa for the Schengen area were first increased from 60 to 80 euros in 2020. The reason given for the increase is the EU-wide inflation rate over the last three years.

The trade fair industry in Germany has left the coronavirus crisis behind. For 2023 as a whole, the industry recorded more than just a big increase compared to 2022, according to a recent study by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA).

2.86 million square metres of hall space are currently available at German trade fair venues of national or international importance. This is a slight increase of just under 60,000 square metres (+ 2.1 percent) compared to the previous year.

The global trade fair industry has fully recovered from the pandemic in most markets. On average, sales in 2023 have reached a comparable level to 2019. This is according to the latest survey by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI), which was completed in January.

Augsburger Schwabenhallen Messe- und Veranstaltungsgesellschaft mbH and Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH are new members of AUMA - Association of the German Trade Fair Industry. The AUMA Executive Board approved the admission at its most recent meeting in Hanover in December.