THE MAJORITY of exhibition companies from across the globe have declared an increase in their turnover over the past three years, according to UFI’s latest Global Barometer survey of the exhibition industry.
However, most of the 221 respondents from 61 countries who participated in the study in June believe that the global economic crisis has not blown over. Results revealed that most respondents were still feeling the impact of the downturn.
The study noted: “the significant decrease of confidence outlined six months ago in Asia-Pacific is confirmed, with 71 per cent declaring that the impact of the economic crisis on their exhibition business is not over”.
Only 10 per cent of the respondents believe that the economic crisis will end this year, while 44 per cent believe it will end in 2013. In the last Global Barometer conducted in December 2011, 27 per cent of respondents believed that the downturn would end in 2012, and 46 per cent expected it to end in 2013.
Slower turnover growth is also being felt in Asia-Pacific. Sixty-three per cent of respondents in Asia-Pacific said their turnover had increased in the first half of 2012, as compared to the same period last year, while 80 per cent had reported the same for the first half of 2011 in an earlier study.
Seventy per cent of respondents expressed expectations of growth for the remaining half of 2012, compared to 82 per cent who had felt the same about the second half of 2011 in an earlier survey.
The state of the national and regional economy (24 per cent), global economic uncertainty (22 per cent), local and national competition (18 per cent), and internal management challenges (17 per cent) were deemed the four most important issues facing exhibition businesses over the coming year.
