UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, has just released the 2008 Euro Fairs Statistics Report. UFI is now responsible for assembling this annual report on Euro Fair Statistics which was originally initiated by FKM (Germany).

Manfred Wutzlhofer, UFI President, emphasized the importance of these figures stating, “trade fairs and exhibitions play a vital role in today’s business world. It is therefore essential that customers have access to reliable exhibition data”. The continuing goal of this project is to provide all interested parties (public authorities, exhibition organizers, exhibitors and visitors) with audited European exhibition statistics. For exhibition organizers and exhibitors, audited exhibition statistics provide the most consistent means of measuring return on investment.

The current 2008 data collection exercise gathers information provided by eleven national and regional bodies covering 20 countries. The participating organisations are: AEFI - Associazione Esposizioni e Fiere Italiane, Italy; AFE - Spanish Trade Fair Association, Spain; Association for Voluntary Control of Fair Statistics (FKM-Austria), Austria; BDO bdc & Associates, Portugal; CENTREX - International Exhibition Statistics Union, Hungary; Danish Audit Bureau of Exhibitions and Fairs, Denmark; FUTFO – Finnish Union of Trade Fair Organizers, Finland; OJS – Fairs & Exhibitions Statistics Association, France; Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs (RUEF), Russia; Scandinavian Fair Control (SFC), Sweden; and the Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics (FKM), Germany.

Each of these organisations ensures that the data contained for events included in this report have been audited. This 2008 Euro Fair Statistics edition contains the statistics of 2,195 trade fairs and exhibitions. At these events over 655,000 exhibitors, 53 million visitors and 25 million square meters of rented space were registered. In the current study, 42% of the fairs and exhibitions were addressed to trade visitors, 38% to private visitors and 20% to both target groups.

From 2007 to 2008 a progression of +16% in the total number of audited fairs and exhibitions is to be noted. It is UFI’s goal to develop this report in the future in terms of geographical scope and content. Vincent Gerard, UFI Managing Director, noted that, “UFI estimates that the total net space rented annually in Europe is approximately 53 million square meters. Thus the audited trade fairs present in this report represent almost half of the European trade fair market. It is UFI’s intention to develop the qualitative and quantitative coverage of European trade fair statistics in future Euro Fair Statistics reports”.