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Heimtextil 2011 - a perfect start to the business year

20 Jan '11

3 min read

Twin-pronged success at the start of the home-textile year: 5% more exhibitors and 3% more trade visitors at Heimtextil 2011 which was held in Frankfurt, Germany, January 12 – 15, 2011.

“The home-textile highlight at the beginning of the year was a great success with three percent more trade visitors from 136 countries (2010: 120) and five percent more exhibitors”, said Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt, summarising the results of the world's biggest trade fair for home and contract textiles. “Important for us, however, is not just the growth in participant numbers but also the increased quality of the fair, which both exhibitors and visitors rated as being very good.”

Over 73,000 trade visitors from the fields of purchasing, the retail trade, interior decoration, architecture, design and contract furnishing attended the four-day trade fair, an increase of around 2,300 compared to last year (2010: 70,786, basis: FKM). The number of German visitors remained stable at 25,200 with growth coming from abroad – an additional 2,400 visitors to make a total of 47,700.

The ten best represented visitor nations are , , , , , the , , The Netherlands, and the . These countries also generated the highest rates of growth that, in many cases, ran into double digits. Altogether, visitors from outside German now account for two thirds of Heimtextil visitors.

This large number of visitors goes hand-in-hand with a large number of exhibitors. This year, 2,601 exhibitors from 60 countries took part (2010: 2,469, basis: FKM), 87 percent of them from outside , a new record level of internationality. The best represented European exhibitor nations were , , , , and . From overseas, they were , , , and the .

On the whole, the excellent exhibitor and visitor statistics for Heimtextil mean the German fair and exhibition business can look forward to a successful year. In the sector, the Heimtextil is regarded as an important trend indicator because it is the first leading international trade fair of the year in .

“The signs from are unequivocal – in the wake of the economic crisis, leading trade fairs are more important than ever before”, remarked Detlef Braun. According to a current poll conducted by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (Messeausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft e.V. – AUMA), fairs and exhibitions account for 43 percent of the marketing budget and are, therefore, the most important tool in the B2B sector.

Against the background of the world economic recovery and initial signs of growth last year, as well as the successful course of business at the fair, both exhibitors and visitors were very pleased with the Heimtextil and are taking a confident view of the future. At 92 percent, the overall level of satisfaction on the trade visitor side was even higher than the year before.

There was also a significant improvement in the way German visitors view the current economic situation with almost 90 percent rating it as satisfactory to good (78 percent last year). Visitors from outside also see the economic situation in a more positive light than last year, albeit not quite so positively as the German visitors (75 percent; 2010: 66 percent).

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Heimtextil 2011

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