Ifo study on expenditures by exhibitors and visitors at German trade fairs
Companies from all around the world
make considerable investments to participate in trade fairs in Germany.
Exhibitors and visitors spend a total of around 14.5 billion euros a
year. This is one result of a study carried out by the ifo Institute on
the overall economic relevance of exhibitions in Germany, which has just
been released by AUMA, the Association of the German Trade Fair
Industry.
Exhibitors account for the majority of expenditures, investing a total
of 9.6 billion euros per year to participate in trade fairs in Germany.
Some 30.3% of this – or 2.9 billion euros – go to stand construction and
complementary services, followed by stand rental including incidental
expenses (21.2%), personnel (15.6%) and accommodation/meals (13.5%).
Visitors to German trade fairs spend 4.7 billion euros a year. Their
major expenditures are for accommodation (26.1%), followed by travel
(21.6%) and catering (21.5%).
Trade fairs induce total annual production effects in the German economy
of 28 billion euros. This in turn generates 4.5 billion euros of tax
revenue on national, state and municipal levels. A comparative
assessment reveals that tax revenue has increased by 700 million euros
since 2009.
Trade fairs in Germany account for 231,000 full-time jobs. This
represents an increase of 4,800 over 2009. More than half of trade
fair-induced positions, or 126,200 employed persons, are in the service
sector, led by the hotel and restaurant industries (31%). Retail and
transportation account for 49,100 jobs and the production sector for
46,800.
The study now released, Overall Economic Relevance of Exhibitions in
Germany, registers costs for exhibitors and visitors as well as
investments in exhibition venues in Germany. It examines production,
employment and tax effects of trade fairs in Germany. It covers the
period from 2014 to 2017 in order to encompass all the different
interval-based trade fairs that take place in the country.
The study is based on representative surveys of around 50,000 visitors
and around 30,000 exhibitors from both Germany and abroad at different
trade fair locations over the past four years.
An English summary of the study “Overall Economic Relevance of
Exhibitions in Germany” can be downloaded free of charge from the AUMA
website: [download]
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