At the end of the 2022 trade fair season, the answer is a resounding yes. Exhibitor and visitor numbers have not quite reached the pre-corona level of 2019, but the figures are clearly on the rise again. This is all the more remarkable given that, in addition to corona, the Russian attack on Ukraine and all the consequences that followed also weighed on people's minds. However, the strict Chinese quarantine regulations, which prevented companies from the People's Republic from sending their employees to foreign trade fairs, are also a decisive factor in the fact that exhibitor numbers have not yet reached pre-crisis levels. And, of course, corona is not over either.

Chinese exhibitors are missing

After the involuntary break, 999 exhibitors met 43,813 visitors at SPS in November 2022; in 2019, the figures were 1,585 exhibitors and 63,708 visitors. The fact that the atmosphere in Nuremberg was nevertheless very good was also due to the fact that the big players from Beckhoff to SEW-Eurodrive were back on board. Among the exhibitors, the numerous small suppliers from China were particularly absent.

The figures for automatica 2022 were similar: 574 exhibitors and 28,937 visitors after 890 exhibitors with 46,000 visitors in 2018. Nevertheless, the atmosphere at the stands at the Munich robotics trade fair was also excellent. The exhibitors were pleased with the qualified visitor response and good leads.

Satisfaction also at the Stuttgart exhibition center at the airport with LOGImat, AMB and Motek. The logistics trade fair in particular, which had to take place at the same time as the Hannover Messe at the beginning of June due to changes in dates, scored well: 1,571 exhibitors were slightly fewer than in the record year 2019 with 1,624 exhibitors, but more than in 2018 with 1,560 exhibiting companies. 50,000 people visited the event, according to organizer Euroexpo.

AMB also attracted a mass audience in mid-September: Landesmesse Stuttgart counted 64,298 visitors at the entrances, who encountered 1,238 exhibitor stands. Although the comparative figures for 2018 were significantly higher - 91,016 visitors with 18,853 exhibitors - this did not detract from the satisfaction of the exhibitors and visitors; the atmosphere at the metalworking trade fair was very good.

Low mood in the north

Curiously, there was less euphoria at this year's best-attended industrial trade fair, the Hannover Messe at the end of May and beginning of June. 75,000 visitors and around 2,500 exhibitors turned up in the huge area under the Hanover Trade Fair Tower, fewer than at the much smaller events in Stuttgart, Munich or Nuremberg; many halls were completely closed or half closed off. The exhibits on the stands of the exhibitors who did appear were few and far between. Above all, however, before the crisis there were 211,338 visitors to 6,188 exhibitors - a considerable drop in percentage terms. All of this affected the mood.