The exhibition industry highlights its role in helping to overcome the situation caused by Covid-19
Fira de Barcelona celebrates the Global Exhibitions Day ready to be a driving force of the economy
Fira de Barcelona is taking part in Global Exhibitions Day, an initiative promoted by the UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) that has been held on the first Wednesday of June since 2015. This year, the world’s trade fair sector is asserting its essential role in stimulating business growth in order to contribute to the reactivation of the economy in the post-Covid era. This is the aim with which Fira is preparing its return to activity in September, adapting to the new context with the purpose of acting as an economic and social driving force within the country.
Under the slogan “Exhibitions are key to rebuilding economies”, the fifth Global Exhibitions Day involves organisers and operators of trade fairs, venues, convention centres and associations and service providers from about 90 countries.
Around 32,000 professional exhibitions take place around the world each year, with the participation of 4.5 million companies, the attendance of 303 million visitors and the generation of 3.2 million jobs. The sales value of this global trade fair activity totals 275,000 million euros, while the sector’s contribution to the world’s GDP amounts to 167,000 million euros, a figure higher than that of economies such as Hungary, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Ecuador, according to a report written by Oxford Economics for the UFI.
About 600 trade fairs are held in Spain each year with approximately 50,000 exhibitors and 9.7 million visitors, according to data provided by the Spanish Trade Fair Association (AFE in its Spanish initials). Fira de Barcelona, a leading exhibitions organizer in the Spanish market, particularly in terms of professional and industrial trade fairs, holds an annual average of 150 events each year with 30,000 direct and represented exhibitors.
Pau Relat, Chairman of Fira de Barcelona, stresses that “in the current climate trade fairs will be essential for our social and economic recovery, as they’re a proven and effective way of promoting business and networking and generating a significant economic impact in the region. This is why at Fira we’re already getting ready to resume our activity in September and, once again, provide key support for the economic sectors, SMEs, professionals and entrepreneurs in the country”.
Trade fair activity returns in September
Thus, Fira de Barcelona is preparing to resume its activity in the final quarter of the year by holding events such as VBBFW (Valmont Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week), BizBarcelona, Alimentaria, Foodtech, Barcelona Boat Show, Smart City Expo World Congress, Expoquimia, Eurosurfas and Equiplast.
With this in mind, the institution is drawing up a specific protocol with the help of experts to apply strict safety and prevention measures for its workers, exhibitors, visitors, organisers and participants during the events that will take place at its venues. This is a goal which, in some cases, will entail a new conceptualisation of trade fairs, with hybrid models combining virtual attendance and physical presence.
Barcelona, 3rd June 2020