Posted by

Barry Siskind

Community Manager

 

A recent survey carried out by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) found that in 2011 the number of exhibitors from non-EU countries in Europe attending German trade fairs rose dramatically.  For example, exhibitors from Russia rose 12%, from Turkey 13% and from Croatia a startling 30%.

 

The trend has spread to other parts of the world as well. For example, there was a 10 % rise from the People’s Republic of China, 9 % from Taiwan, 11 % from Korea and 14% from Japan.

 

The rationale seems straight forward. With domestic markets shrinking or stagnating, companies are making a serious effort to increase export sales and German trade fairs, which attract large international audiences, are the logical place for potential export sales.

 

The study doesn’t answer the question of whether these exhibitors will drop out or reduce their participation in domestic shows but with strained marketing budgets, it doesn’t take a great stretch of one’s imagination to see the possibility.

 

The obvious solution for domestic exhibitions is to take immediate steps to increase the number of international buyers which will keep these eager exhibitors at home.

 

This is not a new problem. Some organizers have been better at increasing foreign attendees than others.  With large numbers of exhibitions wooing the same targeted international buyer it’s easy to see the potential danger as buyers demand more and more from organizers before they agree to attend.

 

Have you experienced unreasonable demands from buyers?  This is a discussion worth having.