Fashion, mobile, travel – some of the world’s biggest trade exhibitions are being cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Fear of the rapidly spreading virus has put the trade fair industry on alert. According to data collected by the German m+a trade fair magazine, more than 340 exhibitions have already been cancelled or postponed worldwide, including 67 events in Europe.
Italy has had the most event cancellations so far. However, after new cases of illness in several federal states of Germany, more and more trade fair organizers are also facing the fear of cancellation. This includes the world’s largest travel trade fair ITB, which has been cancelled in the late evening of February 28th. The convention was supposed to take place from March 4-8th, 2020 in Berlin. The trade fair yearly hosts more than 10,000 exhibitors with visitors from 120 countries. ITB operators had announced early in the day, that they were in constant communication with the responsible authorities from the German government. They wanted to take the recommendations by the World Health Organization, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Foreign Office into account. The final decision was made at around 7:00pm: there will not be an ITB this year.
The cancellation of trade events all around the globe is having adverse effects across the hotel, airline, entertainment, marketing, restaurant, venue and other . In 2017, the global business events industry generated $2.5 trillion worth of business sales, according to the latest research from the Events Industry Council and Oxford Economics. One cannot predict, at this stage, how the Coronavirus is going to affect all of the involved industries throughout the months to come.
Here you can find a map that shows the most important European exhibitions and trade fairs, which have been either cancelled or postponed to date:
You Might Also Like
