Trade Show : ISPO Munich 2013 Sold Record Exhibition Space

Approximately 81.000 business professionals from 109 countries visited ISPO Munich 2013 from Feb. 3-6. This represents four percent more than in 2012. Sixty-six percent of the visitors hailed from abroad, the majority from Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France and Great Britain.

“We experienced the strongest increase from Europe and Asia,” said Klaus Dittrich, chairman and CEO of Messe München International. We were extremely pleased that Spain has rejoined the list of winners and made the jump back into the top ten countries.”

On the exhibitor side ISPO Munich also experienced new growth: 2,481 exhibitors from 52 countries (prior year: 2,344/51) presented their latest products. The net exhibit space increased by 430 square meters to 103,220 square meters total. That’s equal to about 1.4 million square feet, or about 3.5 times the area leased for the Outdoor Retailer Winter  Market in Salt Lake City.

This represents a new record for all relevant trade show statistics and once again validates its role as the leading international platform for the entire sports business.

The atmosphere was very positive during the four event days. About 74 percent of the visitors rated ISPO Munich 2013 as excellent to very good, another 24 percent rated the show as good. The positive results in 2012 for sports retail in particular created an upbeat outlook for the future.
One of the primary reasons for this progress is that sports have gained relevance in the health market.

The 2nd ISPO Health Forum, held on Feb. 5th at the International Congress Center Munich (ICM), confirmed this.

When asked about their prognosis for the next 12 months, 45 percent of the visitors stated that ISPO Munich will continue to gain importance; 50 percent indicated that the trade show will maintain its high level of importance.

The new service offers also received positive feedback: the online platform ISPO Connect, simplifying contacts and networking between exhibitors and visitors ahead of the show, received a very good to good rating from 89 percent of the polled. 93 percent rated the ISPO Award, the sports industry’s seal of quality, very good to good. And the new education platform ISPO Academy received a very good to good rating from 86 percent of visitors.

 “This allows us to face the future with confidence,” said Dittrich. “Our goal is a strong, further development as a year-round full-service provider for the sports industry, to network expertise from all over the world throughout the year, and actively endorse developments and trends in the sports business.”

( SportsOneSource Media )