Trade Fairs

While the domestic trade fair market slumps, German firms are discovering new trade fair markets in emerging economies like China, Russia, the United Arab Emirates -- and India.

India has become "a very interesting market," Sepp Heckmann, chairman of the trade fair company Deutsche Messe AG, told German news agency DPA.

The Hanover-based company is a relative latecomer to the Indian market, where other German firms have been active for years.

Focus on technical sectors

"Whereas the other companies are involved in consumer goods such as textiles, we are concentrating on the investment goods industry," said Heckmann. "It is here we see an enormous potential in the coming years."

Deutsche Messe AG, which hopes to double its revenue from overseas operations to 20 percent over the next few years, has been active in China and Turkey and opened its first fair in India this week.

The three-part event -- including the logistics fair CeMAT India, the automation and drive technology fair MDA India, and the industrial automation fair INDIA -- ran from Tuesday through Friday (Dec. 4-7) at the new Bangalore International Exhibition Center.

A total of 574 firms presented their products, including 130 from Germany. One third of the exhibitors were Indian companies.

Deutsche Messe AG's foreign head Wolfgang Lenarz said plans for expansion on the Russian trade fair market are in the works.

More fairs abroad lead to domestic boost

Overseas trade fairs have "a door-opening function" for German firms, Marco Springer from the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) told DPA.

Trade fair operators hope that the increased number of fairs abroad will lead to more shows at home as organizers persuade exhibitors to show their goods in Germany, he said.

The increase in fairs abroad hasn't hurt the number of trade events in Germany, added Springer. The Frankfurt Messe, a trade fair firm based in Germany's financial capital, is an example of this profitable, two-way strategy.

It organized 11 new fairs abroad in 2007, while breaking a combined visitor record at home and abroad. 3.6 million people attended 113 events this year, 44 of them in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt Messe chairman Michael von Zitzewitz attributed the success to the firm's activity abroad. It has invested in foreign fairs and organized its own shows abroad for the past two decades. The majority of its non-domestic events take place in Asia.

"Even in this difficult domestic situation, the Frankfurt Messe is fortunately stabile," said von Zitzewitz.

The total number of overseas fairs organized by German companies rose 10 percent in 2007 to 220 and is expected to jump to 230 next year.