UFI has released the tenth edition of its annual Report on the Trade Fair Industry in Asia. Net space sold at Asian trade fairs jumped by 6.6% in 2013 to more than 17.3 million m². The current research shows that 17.38 million m² of space was sold by exhibition organisers to their clients in Asia in 2013 – up from 16.31 m² the year before. Of that total, more than 55% was sold in China – or in terms of net space sold 9.72 million m². That is almost five times the space sold in Asia’s second largest trade fair market, Japan (1.97 million m²). For the fourth year in a row growth was particularly strong in Southeast Asia. Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore all outperformed the regional average of 6.6%, but the region’s fastest growing market in 2013 was Taiwan where net space sold increased by nearly 14%. Of the larger markets, China posted the fastest growth - 8.0% in 2013. China has not grown that rapidly since 2008. The other large markets grew more modestly last year. India’s market expanded by 5.4%, Hong Kong and Korea by 3.4% and Japan by just 2.3%. Asia’s venue capacity will exceed 7 million m² by the end of 2014 and the number of venues operating in Asia this year will hit 200 – up from the 100 venues that were in operation in 2004 when the first edition of this report was published. In 2014, China will be home to 106 venues and 4.85 million m² of gross indoor capacity. That represents almost 70% of total capacity available in the region. Adding to this total, China will soon open three significant new venues – two in 2014 and one in 2015, adding more than 630,000 m² to the market. The three new venues are located in Zhuhai, Tianjin and Shanghai, where the latter will become Asia’s largest exhibition venue. The research was once again undertaken for UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, by Business Strategies Group (BSG) in Hong Kong. www.ufi.org
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