Resurgence of business life in Spain

I would like to reflect on how business life is resurging from the Covid-19 pandemic. My reflection focuses on trade exhibitions. In 2021, “live” trade fairs in Spain received 3.79 million visitors, 200% more than in the previous 2020 Covid-19 pandemic year.  273 trade events took place in Spain in 2021, the majority of which were “live” events.

In 2021, stand-out sectorial trade fairs for this bounce back came from the leisure sector, accounting for 26.7% of all “live” trade fairs.  The Spanish Trade Exhibition Association (AFE) forecast that there will be 380 “live” trade events for this year (2022). Let it be known that Spain is amongst the top 5 European trade exhibition countries together with Germany, Italy, France and the UK.

IFEMA/Madrid based exhibitions leads the ranking of international trade fairs. In 2021 IFEMA/Madrid had a 35.5% national market share followed by Barcelona (30%), Valencia (10.3%), Zaragoza (7.5%) and the Basque Region (3.7%).  IFEMA/Madrid was also the trade venue event and the host organiser of the recent NATO summit held in Madrid this June, 2022.  For IFEMA/Madrid, the NATO summit was perceived as an international milestone as it was the largest global event that they have ever hosted to date.

To end my blog, I would like make reference to some important sector based international trade exhibitions which have taken place or are due to take place “live” in 2022. These include: –

• FITUR (tourism sector)
• MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS (mobility/telecom)
• EXPO ALIMENTARIA (food sector)
• GALIFOREST ABANCA (forestry sector)
• NAVALIA (ship-building)
• WIND EUROPE (wind energy sector)
• SMART CITY EXPO (smart city)

Catch a glimpse of all major scheduled trade events in Spain by accessing the Spanish Trade Exhibition Association’s website (www.afe.es)