Nearly all continents contributed to strong exhibitor growth
In 2017, almost all regions in the world contributed to the growth in
the number of exhibitors presenting their products at trade fairs in
Germany. The only exception was North America. The levels of
participation from South, East and Central Asia increased by
significantly more than the average – by 11.2% compared to each of the
previous events. These are results of calculations by AUMA – Association
of the German Trade Fair Industry.
In total, 107.830 foreign exhibitors were counted at 157 international
events in Germany. The levels of foreign participation grew by 6.3%
overall. The main driver of growth was again China with an increase of
16% (13.999 exhibitors in total). This meant that for the first time in
an odd-numbered year China was ranked first among the exhibitor
countries, with Italy (13.145) previously having been ranked first in
each of these years. France ranked third with 6.493 exhibitors.
Other countries among the 20 most important exhibitor countries also
recorded significant increases, such as Japan (23%), Czech Republic and
Portugal (15% each) and Poland (12%). Only the USA registered 5% fewer
participations mainly due to their role as partner country of Hannover
Messe one year ago. Other countries with relatively high numbers of
exhibitors also recorded a strong growth in exhibitors, such as Croatia
(25%), Greece (20%) and Russia (17%). Following marked declines in the
levels of Russian participation in recent years due to economic
sanctions, there were once again increases at some technology-themed
trade fairs. Relatively significant declines were recorded by Morocco
(-25%), the Philippines (-15%) and the United Arab Emirates (-10%).
Among the continents or economic regions, alongside South, East and
Central Asia, Australia/Oceania saw the biggest increase of 12%. They
were followed by the European countries outside the EU (+7%) and the EU
with around +6%. The growth rates of Africa, Latin America and the
Middle East hit the level of just 1-2%. An individual development worthy
of note was that Argentina overtook Brazil as the most important
exhibitor country from Latin America for the first time, thanks to
strong export marketing for food and wine.
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