TEIJI SAKURAI (former JETRO Auditor and Director General of the Trade Fair Department)
Every year, POP publishes a list of newly launched exhibitions and trade fairs in its “Trade Fair and Exhibition News” magazine. This year, in its issue dated January 15th, the magazine published a list of 68 new exhibitions scheduled to be held in 2022. A questionnaire survey was conducted in November 2021 for organizers, exhibition venues, and related organizations and companies. According to the results, the number of exhibitions scheduled to be held in 2022 (excluding corporate private shows and sales events) is 861.
This list of new exhibitions has been published since 2014 and is now in its ninth year. This report analyzes the launch of new exhibitions for the six-year period from 2017 to 2022 based on the published data. Below is the analysis of the number of exhibitions held, as well as by industry sectors, by venues, by exhibirion organizers and by regions.
1) New Exhibitions
The total number of new exhibitions held (or to be held) in the course of nine years from 2014 to 2022 is 446. Starting with 22 fairs in 2014, 40s in 2015 and 2016, and 50s from 2017 until 2020. The 2020 survey was released on January 15, before the spread of the COVID-19 infection. 2021 survey revealed 57 fairs, and 68 in 2022, showing an increase of about 20%. Even in the midst of the pandemic, I could feel the enthusiasm of the exhibition organizers to overcome this crisis.
◆Chart 1. New Exhibitions
| Year | Number |
| 2014 | 22 |
| 2015 | 46 |
| 2016 | 45 |
| 2017 | 54 |
| 2018 | 53 |
| 2019 | 50 |
| 2020 | 51 |
| 2021 | 57 |
| 2022 | 68 |
| Total | 446 |
2）By Industry Sectors
The January issue of the magazine presents the following information on the most popular industry sectors for the exhibitions. As a result of the analysis based on 822 questionnaire responses, the most popular industries were IT/information processing, Office equipment and environment/energy, Manufacturing/design/control equipment as capital goods. As consumer goods, Food & beverage, Beauty and health, and Hospitals and medical care. Although there have been no major changes in popular industries compared with previous years, a growing interest in the health and medical fields, as well as products and services supporting telework, can definitely be seen.
◆New Industries in 2022
Now let’s take a look at the industries of the new exhibitions in 2022. I would like to point out that classification of industries is a challenging task. There are many new exhibitions that cover multiple industries, making it difficult to make an accurate judgment about which industry to classify them into. Chart 2 below shows the author’s own classification of new exhibition industries from 2017 to 2022.
・The following is the ranking of industries for the 68 new exhibitions in 2022
13 – Food products, Restaurants, Food processing
8 – Health, Beauty, Sports and Cosmetics
7 – IT, AI, IoT, 3D, Telework, Digital Transformation
7 – Management, Labor management, Education, Welfare, childcare, and Asset Management
4 – Manufacturing Technology, Production Technology, Factories, and Robots
3 – Sales, Advertising, Marketing, Franchising, Overseas Promotion
3 – Automobiles, Auto Parts, Transportation, Logistics
3 – Tourism, Regional Revitalization, MICE, IR
3 – Disaster Prevention, Security, and Risk Control
・The ranking of new exhibition industries (10 or more exhibitions) for the six-year period from 2017 to 2022 is shown below.
40 – IT, AI, IoT, 3D, Telework, Digital Transformation
35 – Manufacturing Technology, Production Technology, Factories, and Robots
35 – Food Products, Restaurants, Food processing
28 – Medical, Nursing Care and Infection Control
23 – Management, Labor Management, Education, Welfare, Childcare and Asset Management
21 – Housing, Stores, Facilities, Interior Design
20 – Health, Beauty, Sports and Cosmetics
14 – Fashion, Apparel, Textiles, General Merchandise, Gift and Lifestyle
14 – Sales, Advertising, Marketing, Franchising, Overseas Promotion
13 – Automobiles, Auto Parts, Transportation, Logistics、
13 – Tourism, Regional Revitalization, MICE, IR
11 – Metals, Materials
10 – Disaster Prevention, Security, and Risk Control
This shows that the industries covered are almost the same as the popular industries pointed out by the aforementioned Trade Fair Exhibition News. All of these industries cover high-tech fields, fields that reflect the pandemic, health-conscious fields, fields that are becoming popular and trendy, fields that address the needs of the aging population, and fields that have strong roots in the food and restaurant industries.