UFI releases 2024 edition of the World Map of Exhibition Venues

UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, has released the latest edition of its World Map of Exhibition Venues to provide stakeholders with the latest insights into venue capacity worldwide. This report was prepared in collaboration with jwc.

In addition to global and regional venue capacity data, the report details 22 global markets with over 300,000m² of gross indoor exhibition space.

This global census covers all exhibition venues with a minimum of 5,000m² of gross indoor exhibition space at the end of the year 2023.

On a regional level, the Asia-Pacific region now accounts for 38.5 per cent of global venue capacity, surpassing Europe (36.7 per cent) for the first time. North America ranks third at 17.1 per cent.

On a country level, China continues to dominate globally, representing 31.3 per cent of total venue capacity, followed by the US (14.2 per cent) and Germany (7.3 per cent). Collectively, the top five markets (China, the US, Germany, Italy, and France) have grown by 1.1 percentage points to a new total of 63.5 per cent of total space globally.

Mega venues – facilities with over 100,000m² of indoor exhibition space –continue to grow in number, with 83 tracked globally. Europe retains a small lead here with 39 such venues, ahead of Asia-Pacific with 38. The remaining ones are North America (5) and the Middle East and Africa (1).

For the first time, venues from Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast have been included in the report.

The 2024 UFI World Map of Exhibition Venues covers the following markets: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, and the USA. These dedicated country profiles provide a deep dive into venue capacity and trends, offering valuable benchmarks for industry stakeholders.

The full World Map of Exhibition Venues report is available free of charge on the UFI website at www.ufi.org/research. It is also available at www.jwc.eu.com.